The Alternative Effect
by JordanBookWorm
Summary: After decades of war, Humanity purged the BETA from the Solar System. Now they set their sights on the stars.
1. Timeline

**Hi, this is my first attempt at a fanfiction. I've had this brewing in my head for quite some time, so I finally decided to start writing it up. For now, here's a timeline of major events, since there is a lot of ground to cover between the end of Muv-Luv Alternative (which is set during 2001, mind you) and the First Contact War of 2157.**

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><p><strong>Timeline<strong>

2008:

-Since the success of Operation CHERRY BLOSSOM and SLEDGEHAMMER, 15 of the 21 Hives on Earth have been retaken and destroyed by human forces. Only the Hives in the northern Soviet Union and in Central Asia remain under BETA control.

-Western Europe has been full retaken, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of troops and hundreds of TSFs. Lyons, Budapest and Belarus Hives retaken.

-The Lockweed-Mardin F-35 Lightning II is given its first combat tests in real combat, during Operation Khaki, the assault on Objective 13 in India. The TSF exceeds the test envelope, with the pilot being able to push the fighter's combat endurance so far that it was one of the few TSFs that was still able to fly out of the Hive at the end of the operation. Many of the other surviving TSF's either had to walk out or be dragged out. The observers from the Australian Army, who were evaluating the fighter for possible adoption, nicknamed it "The Boomerang".

-Combat trials for the F-35 end. Production begins.

-Development of US Navy heavy TSF begins, as the F-24 Project. Despite the success of the F-35 design, concerns are raised about its short combat uptime and range. Navy planners settle on a heavily modified and adapted version of the F-22.

2009:

-The F-35 enters full service in the US Army, Navy and Marine Corps, replacing the aging F-16 Fighting Falcon and F-18 Hornet. It is also adopted by several militaries closely allied with the US, including the British Army and Royal Navy, the ANZAC forces, and the African Union. Japan and the South American Coalition also acquire several for testing.

-Production of F-35 outsourced to overseas production facilities, with a struggle to meet demands not seen since the early deployments of the F-4 and F-5.

-December: UN, US, COSEAN, Australian and Japanese forces assist the United Front of China in taking the Dunhuang Hive.

2011:

-The navalised version of the F-22 Raptor, the F-24 Hellcat II, completes development. It adopts features previously found on the old F-14 Tomcat, such as its variable-geometry jump-units. It formally enters service in April.

2012:

June: The final hive, Objective 15, the Krasnoyarsk Hive, is taken by the combined forces of 8 different militaries. Mankind collectively celebrates as the world's militaries begin clean-up operations around the globe.

November: Preparations begin for retaking Luna. Orbital facilities are upgraded in the build-up. The now-redundant colony ships that were built for the Alternative V plan are repurposed as orbital assault carriers. The ships are retrofitted with two dozen EML-99 railgun turrets each for fire-support.

2013:

-Research into modifying existing TSFs and combat vehicles for combat in vacuum, since most existing technology is based around working in atmosphere. Since the last engagement on the moon was in the 1970's pre-existing equipment is long out of date, and a lengthy redevelopment is required. As such, the upgrades are limited to 3rd Generation TSFs, and modern combat vehicles. TSF Jump Unit jet engines are replaced with aerospike rocket motors and manoeuvring thrusters, and ground support vehicles such as tanks and rocket-launch systems are modified to be fully air-tight and electrically powered.

-Additional XG-70d's are not constructed, after the loss of the one used in Operation OUKA, and the inability of existing computer systems to control the immense fluctuations in the G-Element produced gravity field, and because of the moral dilemma of utilising another unit of similar type to the -ERROR-0 Un-ERROR- *FILE NOT FOUND*. And that is without mentioning the astronomical cost of construction.

2016:

-Orbital trials with space modified TSFs prove highly successful. Production of the F-15F _Star Eagle_, F-22B, F-24B _Lynx_, F-35D _War Lightning_, Type-14 _Yukikaze_, EF-2020 _Cyclone_, JAS-39+ and Su-47UB begins.

-Rebuilding of damaged areas of the world begins. It is expected to take at least 30 years to rebuild and repopulate Europe alone.

2017-2020:

-build up to Operation: MOONLIGHT continues, with hundreds of space-combat TSFs being built, and thousands of older models being modified to take part in the assault, along with tens of thousands of ground support vehicles. Over 300,000 personnel are retrained for orbital and lunar combat.

-another 8 assault carriers are constructed in addition to the three existing carriers, bringing the total to 11.

2021:

-February-May: Troops, equipment, vehicles and supplies begin transferring aboard the carriers.

~Side Note – Carrier Names: UNS _Spirit of Humanity_, UNS _Gaia_, UNS _Kashgar_, USS _Enterprise_, USS _Freedom_, HMS _Illustrious_, EUS _Ignis_, SNS _Moscow_, IJN _Tsukikaze_, HMANZS _Gallipoli_, UFS _Yǔzhòu_.

-July 23rd: The Lunar Fleet departs Earth.

-July 25th: The Lunar Fleet arrives in lunar orbit. The ships begin bombardment of the nearside hives with railguns and conventional warheads. Ground forces begin deployment.

2028:

-After seven years of combat, the final hive on the moon is taken. Humanity's sights are now set on Mars, the world where the BETA were first encountered.

-Magnetic accelerator-based weaponry becomes the standard for infantry, light and armoured vehicles, and for TSFs.

2040:

-After almost 70 years of fighting, the Solar System is finally cleansed of BETA.

2046:

-The first fusion power-plant is constructed. After some significant hiccups, the installation proves a great success.

2050:

-Colonies set up on Luna and Mars.

2054:

-small scale fusion generators are developed, alongside fusion-powered engines for vehicles, such as aircraft and TSFs.

2060's:

-the human population finally begins to approach pre-BETA levels.

-a new form of TSF is developed as a significantly smaller and cheaper vehicle for infantry support and urban combat. Colloquially known as the Patrol Fighter, Recon Fighter or Utility Fighter ("Ute", to Australian forces), the first PSF, the F-42, enters service in the United States and European Union Militaries. During its initial combat tests (using the JIVES system) during development, an YF-42 was swallowed by a horde of Tanks, at which point the test was almost halted, were it not for the prototype to emerge from an enormous pile of simulated corpses, completely coated in simulated blood. An astounded tech later described it as "like a phoenix, rising from its own grave." The name stuck, and the F-42 entered service as the F-42 _Phoenix_.

-Because the threat of Laser-class BETA has been passed for over 20 years, fighter and strike aircraft are gradually reintroduced into world militaries. Many design philosophies from TSFs are incorporated, since fighter design has been stagnant since 1967, with the original F-4 Phantom, prior to it being redeveloped as a TSF. Military Air Forces are re-established, except in the US, which never disbanded its Aerospace Force.

2075:

-The remains of what appear to be alien buildings are discovered on Mars. Buried amongst the rubble, the wreckage of several ships is discovered. The scientific community and the major military powers are extremely suspicious of the ruins. Traces of an unidentified substance are found on what are believed to be the drive cores of the ships. Further testing reveals that the substance alters the mass of objects by way of positive and negative electrical charges, similar to certain strains of G-Elements. The substance is later named "Element Zero", mostly because it sounded cool. The samples are sealed away, since not enough is found to be of any practical use.

2077:

-The UN assimilates the world governments into a single, unified body. There is some conflict, but most of the major powers accept the decision to unify.

-Engineers and scientists working on military stealth technology make a significant breakthrough. They develop an optical cloak system that renders the user almost completely invisible to the eye. Testing using preserved Laser-class samples prove that the cloak works against them. Unfortunately, the _Camouflage Field_ is found to draw a ridiculous amount of energy, for its operation, and that they are extremely temperamental. Testing continues.

2079:

-A survey ship investigating Pluto accidentally activates an alien artefact buried beneath the surface of Charon. The artefact thaws, melting a significant portion of Charon, reducing the size of the moon by almost 15 percent and briefly giving it an atmosphere.

-A single ship, the USS Yukon, captained by Commander Jon Grissom, approaches the artefact, while being observed by a dozen other ships. There is a flash of light, and the Yukon disappears. It reappears several hours later, where it found the UN Fleet guarding the device about to obliterate it with G-bombs. Crisis is averted, with Commander Grissom barely managing to talk down the commander of the UN fleet.

-Survey data from the Yukon reveals that the ships destination was in the Arcturus System, 36 light years away.

2080:

-further surveys of Arcturus reveal the existence of another 5 Relays in the system. Exploration of the Relay network begins by the UN. Large amounts of Element Zero are also discovered on the third planet of the system, leading to questions from the scientific community concerning whether or not it is naturally occurring. Eezo experiments become somewhat rampant…

-The first self-aware AI, named Eve, comes online. Once she begins to ask "The Question", her creators opt to leave her to find an answer for herself.

2082:

-The first TSF built around an Electronic Camouflage Field (ECF), the F-45 _Spectre_, enters service, supplanting its shortlived predecessor, the F-44 Raven. The success of the system leads it to being adapted for every vehicle larger than an APC.

2083:

-Eve declares to her creators that she believes herself to be alive. More AI's are created.

-The Synthetic Rights Laws are passed, granting AI's the same rights as humans.

2090:

-experimentation with G-Elements captured from the Class7-9 hives on Luna and Mars leads to the development of FTL drives based on the theories of the Mexican astrophysicist, Miguel Alcubierre. The drive primarily relies on G-11, which controls gravity, and G-6, which has negative mass, to generate the space-time bubble theorised by Alcubierre. The first full scale test carries the test vessel, the _Voyager_, out to the Charon Relay within thirty minutes.

2096-2120:

-FTL equipped ships launch to colonise nearby systems. Barnard II, later named Haven, is among the first colonised, since it was known to be habitable back in the 20th century. Also discovered are several worlds in the process of being devoured by the BETA. The ones that are nowhere near habitable are G-bombed from existence, while habitable ones are invaded, the Hives purged, and the planets fortified. Several of the worlds are found to have traces of now-extinct civilisations, most of which are found on BETA devoured worlds. However, some are found to have been obliterated by what is later thought to have been orbital bombardment.

-Relay exploration slows as exploration and colonisation efforts focus towards the systems in the vicinity of Sol, although ships are sent to continue mapping the network.

2157:

-A BETA infestation is discovered on the habitable world of Shanxi, which reveals the extent of the BETA infestation, since Shanxi is over 50 light years and three Relay jumps from Earth. The infestation is also new; with only four hives constructed. Two carriers, a cruiser squadron and a frigate/destroyer flotilla are assigned to assist in taking the hives and securing the planet for possible colonisation.

-anomalous signals detected from the Shanxi Theta Relay. A ship is sent to investigate, but nothing is found.

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><p><strong>So I've gone looked over your reviews and revised the timeline so that it makes more sense, fleshed out some sections more, etc.<strong>

**However, I will say that:**

**1) Human tech will not be primarily based around Eezo. Imagine Salarian scientists scratching their horns over how a TSF manages to stand up under its own weight**

**2) G-Elements are somewhat important, since human Alcubierre drives require them, but not in large amounts, so drives can still be mass produced from G-Elements recovered from other Hive campaigns. But scientists are working on producing their own...**

**3) The BETA do appear to be widespread to humanity, but we haven't exactly done much exploring compared to everyone else, so its unsure if anyone else has encountered them or not.**

**4) It is pretty difficult to no focus the story entirely on TSFs, and my knowledge of politics is kinda lacking, but I will try...**

**5) Gunship-rescues? Maybe?**

**Anyway, I'm working on chapter 1 (or 2, given how this website works...). Laters.**


	2. The Burning of Shanxi

**Hey guys, as promised, here's the first chapter of the story. Now, to answer some of the reviews.**

**-Kinunatzs: Exoskeletons and Hardimans will make an appearance. Those are infantry use equipment, and we haven't exactly seen any infantry yet...as Eezo tech, I've opted not to give humans that. There will be some stuff based on G-Elements, but thats all.**

**-Robo Reader 21: The timeline is because there is a very long span between the events of Alternative and Mass Effect. And it does reduce the amount of exposition I need to explain things that happened in the past, like how the Prothean Archives on Mars are ruins, or why Humanity doesn't use Eezo, etc. As for the BETA, _I'M GIVING THEM THE STUPID STICK!_ Humans haven't explored very far, so we don't actually know how far the BETA are really spread. Despite how close together Earth might look to Citadel Space, really its a distance of thousands of light years. There are millions of stars in that space.**

**-Jouaint: Thanks**

**-Mr. Guest appearance: I have fixed the issue of the ruins in the timeline.**

**-ferduran: if you don't know the background of Muv-Luv (maybe I should do a codex entry on it), but G-Elements are anything but man-made. They are obtained from the Reactors inside BETA Hives.**

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><p>23rd April, 2157<p>

General Fred Williams stood on the observation deck of the UNS _Athens_, watching the ships TSFs and strike fighters deploy to the surface as the assaults vanguard.

The deck shuddered as the _Athens'_ guns began bombarding the hive.

_I wonder what the casualty reports will be like this time,_ thought Williams. Even with the significant advancements in technology and hive-assault tactics over the last century, most assault forces took at least forty percent casualties, wounded or dead. Ten percent would be lost during the initial drop, and the rest inside the chaos of the hive interior. But humanity had learnt a lot of lessons from the disasters of early hive intrusions, and from the near failure of Operation OUKA, over a century and a half ago, which had resulted in over 99 percent casualties in the Objective 01 assault force.

_Let's try to keep them low._ He signalled the CIC, "This is the General. Maintain the bombardment until the Helljumpers are about to hit. Strike fighters are free to engage at their discretion. Just tell them to watch for laser fire. I want the 81st and 105nd Light Assault Battalions, along with the 43rd and 258th Light Armoured to drop in to support the vanguard. But I want a few squadrons of Utes held in reserve to act as fast response."

_This is going to be a long day._

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><p>"<em>All drop-shell detonations confirmed. Good luck, Helljumpers."<em>

2nd Lieutenant Mari Bridges of the United Nations Marine Corps 54th Orbital Diver Battalion_ Helljumpers_ let out a nervous chuckle as the lead lined drop-shell that had encased her F-62 Comet Tactical Surface Fighter broke apart around her, exposing her fighter to the atmosphere and the possibility of Laser-fire. _This is going to be hell._ _I would have preferred my first drop to be against a regular swarm, not a damned _Hive_. Ah well, shikata ga nai._

"Oi, Bridges, you awake in there?" said a voice over the squad-net.

The voice belonged to one 1st Lieutenant Sasha Ivanov_a. "_Remember, kid, cloak as soon as you can. That'll keep you alive."

"_Hai_, El-Tee."

"Good. Now, I'd better see you on the ground."

Mari nodded, before cutting the link. Then she put her Comet into a barely controlled spin, to avoid possible laser hits.

And sure enough, a beam burned through the extremities of the heavy metal cloud that had previously been her shell. _That was a close one._ _I thought that they weren't supposed to miss._

As her Comet began to approach its target altitude, Mari triggered her ECF, turning her TSF into a shimmering heat-blur. She would still be visible to the Laser-class on the ground, but they would be less likely to target her. And then her Jump-units dialled up to full thrust, the deceleration rate so high that Mari could feel her neural link threatening to disconnect.

Captain Smith's face appeared in the squad-net. "Bridges, Feng, you're coming in too fast!"

Mari squeezed out a nod against the g-forces, as she rode her Comet down. And then her velocity hit the maximum safe level, and her turbines automatically dialled down, bringing the fighter to a relatively gentle touchdown, which was if landing on top of a Tank-class and crushing it under her feet could be considered gentle. Gentle probably wasn't the right word. The phrase "Like a shooting star" probably fit the landing better.

Mari took a moment to shake off the shock of the impact, before taking a look around.

And found herself surrounded by Tanks. _Fuck._

She fumbled briefly, trying to bring her AMWS-31B Support Assault Cannon into firing position. While she was trying to get herself into the fight, several Tanks took the opportunity to leap onto her exposed Comet.

Only to be shredded by a burst of 20mm hypersonic cannon fire.

"Dammit, kid, I told you to stay alive."It was 1st Lt Ivanova. Looking in Ivanova's direction, Mari could pick out the computer generated outlines marking the rest of the cloaked Helljumpers' 3rd Squadron. Except for 2nd Lt Feng, whose signal was conspicuously absent.

"Sorry Sasha," said Mari apologetically. She finally had her cannon up and slamming magnetically accelerated high explosive rounds into the horde of Tanks approaching their position.

After about thirty seconds of firing, the seven TSFs had cleared the area of BETA, giving Mari the opportunity to take a good look at their surroundings. They seemed to be in a clearing, with a large forest of tree-analogues covering the area to the south and west, steep cliffs to the north, and, according to the data-feed from the _Athens _and the _Atlantis_, about six kilometres from the Hive entrance that had been assigned to their squadron. Apparently, the mechanised infantry, assault tanks and Utes from the 81st and 43rd were already en-route from their landing zones, and would arrive at the Hive within the hour, assuming they weren't devoured first. Despite all the advances to battle tank design over the last century and a half, the only advantages they had in combat were the ability to outrun Tank-classes and Destroyers, and guns and targeting systems capable of kill said Tanks while outrunning them.

Captain Morgan Smith began dishing out orders, "Alright, Marines, we're moving out. Bridges, Ivanova, I want you two cloaked and on top of that cliff. Pick off any Laser-class that you see, and cover us while we approach the Hive. Once we're in, you two will link up with the elements of the 81st and 43rd Light Battalions and support their advance towards the Hive. Move out. Now, everyone else, with me!"

"_OORAH!"_

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><p>"Sir, we will be exiting the Relay shortly."<p>

"Thank you, Ensign," replied Captain Decius Fortix. The captain of the Turian Hierarchy cruiser _Indomitable_ took a moment to review his orders from the Citadel Fleet. _Reconnoitre the system on the other side of Relay 314 for possible threats to the Citadel. Survey the system for possible colonisation efforts and resources. Protect the science team_.

All fairly routine, especially since the Council had loosened the ban on Relay activation. The law had been revised so that inactive relays could be activated, with permission from the Council and an escort from the Citadel Fleet. _Get in; spend a few hours looking around, maybe a few hours poking around if there were any planets of interest, leave._

"Sir, we are clear of the Relay, drifting at eight kilometres. Radar and Ladar are clear. No contacts."

"Good. Tactical, I want us off the grid. Activate the emission shrouds and radar absorbers."

Most military ships these days had a propensity towards remaining hidden, just in case someone decided to investigate.

"We're invisible, sir."

"Very good, men," replied Fortix, although he knew it was a lie. Anyone within range with good enough eyes could pick out the white and red painted warship, just by looking out a view-port.

"Alright, sensory, begin the survey. We've all been issued leave for tomorrow by Command, and I'm sure you all don't want to miss that." There was a round of "Yes sir's" from the crew.

The crew of the _Indomitable_ never detected the array of small monitoring satellites orbiting the Relay, which lost sight of them the moment their radar and thermal signatures disappeared.

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><p><em>Aboard the Athens<em>,_ several minutes later._

"General," the young lieutenant at the sensory console spoke up, "Probes 12 through 15 detected an anomaly near the Theta relay. Something popped up on their sensors, but disappeared shortly after."

Williams pulled up the data feed on the holo-tank. _Athens' AI, _Deja, popped up next to it.

"General, I believe it may have been a ship. Before the anomaly vanished, one of the probes took this image." An image of a pinkish blur appeared on the display. "I believe this is the ship."

"Alright, Deja, I'll trust your judgement on this. Put the fleet on alert, but only the ships command staff and AI's. Have the _Canberra _investigate the relay, see if this thing is still in the area."

"Yes, General."

_I have enough on my plate without having to deal with a possible first contact. Hell, we don't even _have_ first contact protocols anymore. Not since we found the BETA outside Sol._

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><p><em>The Indomitable.<em>

"Would you look at that, sir," said Ensign Victus, the sensory officer. "Looks like we might have ourselves a garden world. Spectral analysis of atmosphere shows 75 percent nitrogen, 22 percent oxygen, and 3 percent a mix of harmless inert gases. Surface temperature a few degrees below Palaven average. Seems like we hit the jackpot."

"Alright, the yolk-heads will want more details than that. Get us some more data on the planet."

Victus made some tweaks to the sensor systems, expanding the data collection range. He waited a few minutes for the readings to be received by the sensors and the data processed by the ship's VI. _Hmm...Three continents, surface is 80 percent water, green and red colouration possibly indicative of chlorophyll or similar analogues in the flora, and what is that? Huh? That can't be right!_

"General!" Victus exclaimed. "The sensors are detecting ships in orbit of the planet. "

"Spirits. They can't have come through 314, we just activated that. Which means they must be from outside Citadel space. We may be looking at a possible first contact. There was a first contact specialist aboard, correct?"

"There is, sir," said one of the bridge technicians, "an Asari named Arys Daela."

"Good. Helm, quietly bring us closer to the planet. I want to get a closer look at them before we make contact."

"Yes, sir."

_Spirits, looks like we may not be getting that leave after all._

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><p><em>UNS Atlantis, 81<em>_st__ Light Assault Battalion, C Company launch bay._

"Shit, Sarge, why are we the ones on standby?" asked a frustrated Corporal James Dunn. "The rest of the battalion is on the ground, fighting for their lives, and we're stuck up here!" His colour turned orange tinged red.

"You dumbass, if you'd paid attention during the briefing you'd know that us and the rest of C and E Companies are on Rapid Reaction duty," replied a very annoyed Gunnery Sergeant Natassa Alenko. Red-grey.

"I know that Sarge, I mean, 'Why us?' specifically?" Blue-grey.

Alenko sighed, "As far as I can tell, they picked out of a helmet. I know son, I want to be down there just as much as the next Marine. But we have orders." Blue-red.

Private First Class Shizuka Yoruda quietly listened in on the conversation taking place below as she sat in the cockpit of her F-61A Phoenix II micro-TSF. She was having issues with the fighters targeting matrix, which stubbornly refused to sync properly with her AWS-38 20mm cannon. The guns were fresh from the repair shop, after a run-in with a construction crane during a patrol at Arcturus Station. She was having Ariel, the C Company AI, help her out, since she couldn't interpret the data streams that connected the weapon system to the targeting computer of the Phoenix II. She absently twirled the silver streak in her otherwise youthfully brown hair.

"Zuka", said Ariel, using Shizuka's nickname amongst the squad, "I believe you need to purge your computers targeting data for this gun, and recalibrate the entire system again. Hard reset the gun first, and then I will do the rest."

"_Doumo,_ Ariel," Shizuka replied as she climbed out of the cockpit to fiddle with the cannon.

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><p><em>Indomitable<em>

"Sir, we've reached the designate orbital point, and we are trailing 20,000 kilometres aft of the unidentified ships. Beginning optical observation….now."

"Thank you Ensign," replied Fortix.

It was several agonising minutes before Victus signalled the Captain that the observations were complete.

"So what are we dealing with?"

"None of the ships match any known patterns or makes in the database, sir. Some of them are even bigger than our dreadnoughts. And none of the radiation associate with Eezo use either. It looks like we might actually be dealing with a new species."

"No eezo on ships that size? Hmm, the Salarian engineers aboard should probably take a look at that later."

"Also the ships appear to be….firing."

"At each other? Please tell me we haven't stepped right into a war."

Victus shook his head. "No sir, they appear to be firing at the something on the surface."

Fortix clicked his mandibles. "If they weren't a new species, I'd write this up as a violation of Citadel Laws and call the fleet in on them." He paused. "Can we see what they're firing at?"

"No sir, the cloud cover is too thick from this angle, and radar is ineffective at this range. And if we move any closer, we risk being detected."

"Alright, Tactical, send in the Lieutenant Vakarian's security team and Dr Daela in one of the stealth shuttles."

The officer in question nodded.

* * *

><p><em>AI Deja, Athens<em>

Deja watched through the optical sensors as the alien ship launched its shuttle. She had picked it up several minutes ago when it popped out of its version of FTL and immediately masked its emissions. But she had already spotted it with the dozens of cameras mounted on the exterior of the ship, as had the AI's of the other ships in the fleet. They had already informed General Williams of the discovery, and were patiently awaiting his decision. It was took all of fifteen seconds for the General to make up his mind.

"Deja, are you and the other AI's tracking the shuttle?"

"Yes, General. It appears to be approaching Hive 02, most likely to observe the target of our orbital bombardment. The cloud cover approaching from the west appears to be blocking their optical sensors."

"Hmm…alright, have the 81st's Rapid Reaction units on standby in case something happens to these aliens. We haven't cleared out all the Laser-class yet, so they might need assistance. And it might help to make a good impression on these aliens, especially given that they have technology."

"Yes, sir."

* * *

><p><em>Shuttle 12, above unidentified planet.<em>

Lieutenant Sorus Vakarian watched out the right-side viewport of the stealth shuttle as the landscape flashed past. There wasn't much to see except enormous forests. There was so little to see that Sorus was stuck thinking about what there was to bombard. _Trees, trees, oh look, more trees, hmm that's a funny looking rock. Why is it green?_

And then a laser beam took out the shuttle's right wing.

Vakarian made sure he was locked in tight as the shuttle began is death spiral towards the ground, as the pilot fought the controls in vain.

_Well, shit. What a bad way to start a mission. Looks like that leave is going to have to wait a while. I hope Kyria and the kids are okay with it, _thought Vakarian, as the shuttle slammed into the ground.

* * *

><p><em>Athens, CIC.<em>

"General, the alien shuttle has been shot down," said Deja, in her ever calm voice.

"Well, time to earn humanity some good points in these aliens books. Drop the Phoenixes."

"Yes General."

* * *

><p><em>A few minutes later<em>

Vakarian carried the wounded Asari contact expert over his shoulder, running as fast as he could. Those damned red..._monsters_ had eaten two of his men when they'd stepped forwards to greet the aliens in the place of the injured doctor, and then they'd torn the downed shuttle apart and eaten it, both parts and all. And then they'd found that their Vindicator Rifles were next to useless against them.

And now Vakarian, along with the two surviving members of his security team were running for their lives across the forest floor, praying to the Spirits that the trees would slow the monsters down. It was not until they reached the clearing that Vakarian realised how utterly screwed they were. The six legged monsters were approaching from almost every direction, and they were moving _fast._

Vakarian lowered the doctor to the ground and shouldered his Vindicator. Troopers Karick and Piran did the same. _We aren't going down without a fight._

* * *

><p><em>Airspace near Hive 02.<em>

The Marines of C and E Companies, 81st Light Armoured Battalion, United Nations Marine Corps, fell towards the ground through an enormous hail of orbitally fired anti-laser shells and clouds of anti-laser smoke, aiming for the clearing that the aliens had been tracked to. Unfortunately, there was an entire regiment of Tanks converging on that clearing, so they'd be extracting the survivors in a D-22 Sabretooth dropship.

Shizuka switched her tactical feed off and double checked her targeting system. Ariel had ironed out all the bugs, but she wanted to be sure.

As the TSFs reached the maximum stealth altitude, the fusion engines powering their Jump Units dialled up, just enough to reach the ground alive, but not enough to break the ECF.

Then Shizuka's Phoenix approached the ground. And for someone whose name meant "quiet", she was about to make a very loud entrance.

* * *

><p>Lieutenant Sorus Vakarian levelled his rifle at the first of the red monsters in sight, which was just outside the 200 metre mark but closing fast. And then he heard it.<p>

It was like a roar that he had never heard before, like some kind of mythical beast. He looked up, searching for the source of the noise, before he realised that it was all around him. And then there was a series of metallic thumps, but there was nothing in sight, only the hoard of monsters emerging from the forest.

Then he heard a voice shout, in a language he had never heard before.

"_Marines. OPEN FIRE!"_

And then all around him were dozens of grey and green titans, silver wings spreading from their backs, the enormous guns in their metal hands jackhammering away at the horde.

Sorus was so entranced by the iron angels that he barely even registered being dragged along with Karick, Piram and Daela up the ramp of the waiting dropship.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Codex – Tactical Surface Fighters:<em>**

_When the BETA first arrived on Earth, Humanity's main advantage was the gratuitous application of airborne firepower. This changed once the first Laser-class emerged from the Kashgar Hive. Not long after, the US Military unveiled its latest weapon, the F-4 Phantom Tactical Surface Fighter. For the next 70 years of warfare, the TSF remained the primary weapon of Humanity in the fight against the BETA._

_Over the course of the war, and afterwards, numerous changes occurred in TSF design and combat doctrine:_

_Initially, TSFs were used as walking tanks, piloted by fighter pilots. Because of this, casualty rates during early engagements resulted in massacres, and lead to the coining of the infamous "8 minutes of death." Afterwards, TSFs shifted towards higher mobility designs over heavy armour, further emphasised by the "Hi-Lo Mix" approach to combat._

_At present, there are five classes of TSF:_

_-The Heavy (Hi) TSF, for long endurance, long range combat._

_-The Light (Lo) TSF, cheaper, easier to produce fighters with shorter endurance but similar combat performance._

_-The "Medium" TSF, which are rarely seen now, but were attempts to merge the two design philosophies of Hi-Lo TSFs. The last Medium TSF used in UN Military service was the F-44 Raven, which was retired in 2089 after only 8 years in service._

_-The micro-TSF (also known as Patrol/Recon Fighters, Utes and Phoenixes), were a very successful attempt at multipurpose TSFs. They are primarily aimed at infantry support, urban combat and base defence, but are also issued to reconnaissance units. Range in size from 9 to 13 metres tall._

_-The Tactical Surface Attacker, a variation on TSF design revisiting the original F-4 Phantom combat doctrine. TSAs rely on heavy armour and their godly amounts of firepower, but are known for their incredibly poor mobility._

_The TSFs currently in UN Marine Corps and Navy service are the F-60 Yukikaze II (Hi), F-62 Comet (Lo), F-61 Phoenix II (micro) and A-25 Raider III. The UN Army, which focuses primarily on the defence of already colonised worlds, is equipped with the older F-57 Nightmare (Hi), F-59 Gryphon (Lo), F-55 Wedgetail (micro) and A-23 Vigilante II. The United Nations, after Unification, adopted a fighter numbering system based on the old United States system, continuing on after the F-42 Phoenix, the original micro-TSF. However, there are several differences in this system. First, "F-"designations are only assigned after a TSF has been adopted for service. Second, no numbers are skipped, for whatever reason, to avoid situations similar to the ridiculous number of unassigned designations between the F-24 Hellcat and the YF-32 Erne and F-35 Lightning II. Third, designations are assigned chronologically, so there are none that go backwards through the system, such as the F-24 Hellcat, which was introduced 2 years after the F-35 Lightning II._

**_Codex – The United Nations:_**

_The United Nations is the governing body of Humanity, having superseded the old national governments in 2077. While national governments still have nominal control over their countries and people, the UN General Assembly has the final say in all non-domestic matters._

_The UN governs by way of representative democracy, with each nation or bloc electing their officials to represent them in the General Assembly._

_Colonies are also allowed to join the General Assembly, once they reach a certain stage of development._

_Due to nations aggregating and unifying prior to Unification, the General Assembly is only made up of approximately 30 states. The aggregate superstates are the North American Union, the European Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Commonwealth of Independent States, the African Union, the United States of Japan and Korea, the United Republic of China, the Commonwealth of Australasia, the Organisation of South East Asian Nations (OSEAN), the Saharan Republic, and the South American Coalition. Other prominent nations include the Brazilian Empire, the Lunar Republic, the Mars Confederated States, the Outer Planets Union, and Haven._

_The United Nations Military is made up of:_

_-UN Army: The successor to the original UN Army from the BETA Wars, the UN Army primarily defends Earth and the colonies, acting mostly like a reserve force to be called up in times of emergency or war._

_-UN Aerospace Force: Similar to the UN Army, the UNAF militarily commands the airspace of all colonies up to high orbit. It primarily uses Strike Fighter and bomber aircraft, but also has ground vehicles and TSFs._

_-UN Navy: The long-arm of humanity out into the stars. The Navy operates the all the warships created by Humanity._

_-UN Marine Corps: Descended from the various military marine forces of the assimilated nations within the UN, including the US Marines, British Royal Marines, the Spanish, French and Italian Marines, the Imperial Japanese Naval Infantry and the ANZAC Marines. The primary military ground force of Humanity out amongst the stars._

_Due to the possible threat of further BETA incursions in the Sol System, and out in the colonies, especially ones that were once home to the BETA, the UN military enforces military training as part of the educational curriculum. Students are given thorough infantry training, along with rudimentary armoured vehicle or TSF training. Students may opt to continue their training once complete, and those that do may join the UN military immediately with minimal time in basic training._


	3. Aliens

**24th April, 2157.**

"_Captain, telemetry from the shuttle cut off. It appears to have been shot down."_

_Fortix bottled up his building rage, before coming to a decision more logical than the one that first came to mind._

"_If those aliens are hostile, we don't have enough firepower to take them on. Helm, jump us back to the Relay."_

"_Yes sir."_

* * *

><p>The shock had worn off for Lieutenant Sorus Vakarian after a few minutes of being with these "humans". Sure they looked ridiculously like asari, but most of the sentient species in the known galaxy followed the same two-armed, bipedal form with the main sensory organs as part of a defined head. Thinking about it, they also looked quite a bit like quarians, but with the more defined facial features of asari. But mostly like the asari, but with the head fur that was common to quarians instead of the tentacle-like crests protruding from the back of asari craniums.<p>

It hadn't taken long to determine how they saw him. They were being extremely cautious, and they had taken everything except his armour and omni-tool. Not to mention the armed guards just about everywhere he looked. Aside from his covert recordings, he'd had to use the device to scan the food they'd tried to feed him. Turned out they were levo-amino. Sorus had had to use the omni-tool to project protein strands to explain how their food might kill him. They got the message eventually. Especially after he had put aside his pride and pretended to fall down dead after pointing at the plate. The humans allowed him to eat some of this own rations instead. And they'd let him keep the omni-tool, since they'd realised that they might be able to communicate through it.

As such, the omni-tool was also analysing the words that echoed around him, trying to contextualise the sounds and alien words to put together some kind of translation system. It was very slow progress. Most of the words he'd been able to get had been related to his weapons and armour. They'd been curious about the barriers, but seemed to have given up until they had some way to translate and explain the inner workings.

After a while they'd moved him into a room with troopers Karick and Piran, while they were presumably still observing Doctor Daela. They'd been separated from her since they'd been brought aboard, and she'd still been unconscious from the crash._ The resemblance must be really creeping them out, huh. Or maybe it's easier for them to try and speak to someone who looks like them, and can probably eat their food._

So he sat, idly chatting with Karick and Piran about their situation, which wasn't exactly welcoming but wasn't really hostile either. They were also putting together a report of everything they knew, so they had something they could transmit back to the Hierarchy and the Council if they eventually got the chance. _Maybe those humans can figure out a translation from all this._

The hatch swung open slowly. And then the human that Vakarian had come to know as _Williams_ walked through the door. Followed by what he assumed was a human female, judging by her obvious similarities to asari and female quarians. It was hard to tell, since they all looked the same in their identical armour plating and the bulky exoskeletons that they wore over them. But the females seemed to have higher pitched voices, so that was a start.

Vakarian stood to greet the humans. Williams nodded his curiously hairless head before speaking, "_Sorusvakarian."_

Williams gestured to the female, _"Shepard."_ The female waved her hand. _Some kind of greeting?_ Williams sat down, followed by _Shepard_. Vakarian followed suit.

And then Sorus felt a kind of pressure in the back of his head, like someone was poking around in his mind. Across from him, Shepard had her eyes closed.

* * *

><p>Lieutenant Commander Hannah Shepard stilled as she peered into the aliens mind. It was so different to a human mind. Rather than a forest of branching thought, it was more like a neural city. Thoughts, memories, ideas; arranged haphazardly, but with a certain discipline to their organisation. Much different from what the minds of BETA Reactors were described as in reports; those were supposedly like a black hole of mind, completely singular in purpose.<p>

She sifted through the memories, searching for the ones that the _turian_ associated with language. A great many of them were linked to memories of teaching the language to what appeared to be a turian infant. A sound-word-memory appeared in Shepard's mind. _Garrus._ _They're just like us, aren't they?_ She smiled inside, and added a few memories of her own little girl, Theresa Jade, to the turians memories. _There's nothing classified about the family trip to Chiron, is there?_

Shepard felt the turian tense up, feeling red and yellow, as if he knew what was happening. Shepard paused, before querying the turians memories for the ones linked to the reaction. It was something to do with that blue human looking alien that was still unconscious in the medical bay. Something to inquire about later.

Shepard finished absorbing the memories and knowledge relating to the turians language, before closing the hatch into his mind. The turians emotions returned to a calm shade of blue. She stood up, saluted the General, and left the compartment, before returning to her cabin to process the information and attempt to get a handle on the turian language. With luck, she would be able to upload some of the data into her neural net so that the fleet AI's could help her build up a translation matrix similar to the ones that had been used by the UN military since the BETA Wars back on Earth.

* * *

><p>Sorus felt the weight in his mind relax, and he let out a sigh of relief, which was perforated by the sheer volume of questions that were beginning to overflow out of his brain. <em>How were these humans capable of mind-melding? We didn't detect any Element Zero on their ships, so biotics is out of the question.<em>

He looked questioningly at Williams, whose only response was to stand up, tilt his head and step out of the room. A puzzled Trooper Karick walked up to him.

"Are you alright, sir? And what was that? They just sat there for a minute, and then left. Wasn't much of an interrogation."

"I think that female mind-melded with me."

"How is that possible? Only the asari are known to be capable of mind-melds," exclaimed Piran, joining the conversation.

"It's a big galaxy, Piran."

Karick spoke up. "Sir, do you know what she took? The _hooman _might have taken information relating to the Hierarchy. Possibly for an invasion!"

"Calm down, Karick!"

"But Sir-"

Vakarian cut her off, "As far as I can tell they're treating us as guests. We haven't been tortured, they have somewhat unsuccessfully tried to feed us their food, and let us not forget that they saved us down on that planet."

"They could have been the ones who shot us down! This could be the Rachni Wars all over again!"

"Karick, if you do not calm down, I will write you up for insubordination when we return to the _Indomitable._ I understand how you feel trooper, but they did save us nonetheless, and you saw what those things down there did to Vierius and Rakal. I want to go home just as much as you do; I want to see my mate and my son again." The thought of little Garrus triggered something in Sorus' mind.

_A cool breeze blows silver and brown hair across her face. Little Terry running ahead, her dark red and silver hair trailing behind her. _

"_Terry, don't go too far ahead."_

"_Okay Mama," replies the little girl, clearly not listening._

_The breeze picks up, blowing the hat off of her head. She gazes upwards, reaching to grab it. She catches a glimpse of the twin stars staring down from the pale blue sky._

"Sir? Sir, are you okay?" It was Piran.

"What happened?"

"I don't know. You stopped speaking and your eyes went kinda blank. After effect of their version of the mind-meld? I've heard that asari mind-melds leave you a bit stunned afterwards."

"I don't think so. I believe I just saw that human, Shepard's memories. It was of a human child. Probably hers. I think she was trying to communicate that we're alike, but wasn't able to say it because of the language barrier."

"I see, sir."

"Good. Now get some rest Trooper, we're going to have a lot to report when we get back to the Hierarchy."

* * *

><p><em>UNS Athens, CIC.<em>

"General," vocalised Deja, "The _Tobruk, Hastings _and_ Paris _have returned from Earth. Captain Sterne reports that they are carrying one Professor Anita Goyle. Additionally, further orders have arrived from HIGHCOM via the QEC. They are marked 'For Your Eyes Only.' I will transmit them to you when you are ready."

"Go."

"Yes, sir."

Williams closed his eyes and allowed the data-file to open up in his neural net.

_Lieutenant General Frederic Williams, UNMC._

_In light of possible first contact – _

Williams skimmed through the military-political chaff to find the actual orders.

– _the United Nations has appointed Professor Goyle as the civilian representative to the Turians, while you have been selected as the military representative in recognition of your ability to keep a level head during your encounter with the alien ship. –_

–_once your tech teams have completed their translation program, you are to negotiate with the turians currently in your care, along with the unidentified humanoid alien once it regains consciousness. –_

–_additional elements from the 3__rd__ and 6__th__ Fleets led by Group-Captain John Shepard will be joining your Expeditionary Fleet within the next two days. –_

_Good Luck._

_Signed, General Jameson T. Kirke, UNMC._

Williams erased the orders from his neural net. "Deja, what is the progress of the translation program?"

"Almost complete, General. It should only be a few more hours to complete the bug-checks. The turian language is remarkable similar in structure to Latin."

"I see. Inform Colonel Telfair that I won't be joining them down at the ground base. I won't have time with all of this."

"Yes, General."

* * *

><p><em>Indomitable, near Relay 314.<em>

Captain Fortix stood on the _Indomitable'_s observation deck watching the assembling fleet. He'd opted to report the incident directly to the Hierarchy command, rather than informing the council. It was his men who had been killed aboard that shuttle, and he was going to personally make sure that the alien bastards who killed them were brought to heel by the might of the Turian Hierarchy.

General Desolas Arterius had quickly mustered a massive force to take on the evidently hostile aliens, with a fleet comprising of six Dreadnoughts, forty Cruisers, and a dozen Frigate squadrons. It was extremely surprising, considering it had only been about a day since they'd escaped 314. Immediately after returning, he'd sent an encrypted message to Palaven High Command. High Command, predicting another Rachni incident, had responded by sending a massive fleet. Once the fleet was fully armed and fuelled, something that was scheduled to be completed within the next few days. Then the fleet would deploy through the relay, which according to the intel that Fortix had brought back, was not guarded. The fleet would then divide into battlegroups and FTL jump to the planet.

And then the bastards would pay.

* * *

><p><strong>Codex:<strong>

**Ships and Vehicles – Military Ship Classification: [Addendum] United Nations Warship Classification.**

_Larger warships are generally classified in one of six weights:_

_-FRIGATES are small, fast ships used for scouting and screening larger vessels. Frigates often operate in "wolf-pack" flotillas, but are often used for battlefield reconnaissance. They are also used as a heavy landing craft and recovery vehicle for vehicles that are incapable of making it back into orbit by themselves, thanks to their spacious cargo holds._

_-DESTROYERS are a specialised type of heavy frigate for escorting and eliminating capital-class vessels. Typically deployed in support of fighter and interceptor squadrons._

_-CRUISERS are middle-weight combatants, faster than battleships, more heavily armed than frigates, and more heavily armoured than destroyers. Cruisers are the standard patrol unit, and often lead frigate flotillas._

_-DREADNOUGHTS are kilometre-and-a-half-long capital ships mounting heavy, long-range firepower. They are used as system defence monitors, and are rarely deployed outside their home systems._

_-BATTLESHIPS are kilometre long capital warships carrying immense batteries of broadside and bombardment weaponry. They have the heaviest armour of any human built ship, but are used primarily for planetary assault, although they are designed for close range devastation of enemy fleets._

_-CARRIERS are vessels even larger than dreadnoughts. They come in two types, the Fleet Carrier and the Assault Carrier. Fleet carriers primarily carry strike fighters and bombers, while Assault Carriers are dedicated planetary assault platforms, capable of carrying Tactical Surface Fighters, strike fighters, tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and dropships, in staggering numbers._

_Smaller vessels are exclusively used in a support role to the warships during combat:_

_-STRIKE FIGHTERS are one-man craft used to perform close range attacks on enemy ships, and to screen friendly units from enemy fighters. They are also used as fast-moving air-support during ground operations._

_-BOMBERS are two-to-three man craft used to perform close range attacks against enemy capital ships, by firing massive volleys of missiles and railgun fire at enemy ships._

**Starships: Frigates [Addendum – United Nations Frigates]**

_Frigates are light escort and scouting vessels. They often have extensive GARDIAN systems to provide anti-fighter screening for capital ships, and carry a squad of marines for security and groundside duty. Like larger vessels, frigates are able to land on planets, and are preferred for this role due to their smaller size and easier handling compared to the large cruisers and massive battleships or carriers. Frigates also have large cargo holds which allows them to be used as landing craft for ground vehicles, and recovery vehicles for atmospheric craft and TSFs that cannot reach orbit under their own power._

_Frigate drive systems allow them to achieve high STL and FTL cruise speeds. They also have proportionally larger thrusters and lighter design mass, allowing them to manoeuvre more handily. In combat, speed and manoeuvrability make a frigate immune to the long-range fire of larger vessels; in the time it takes projectiles to reach them, frigates are no longer where they were predicted to be._

_In fleet combat, frigates are organized into "wolf pack" flotillas of four to six. Wolf packs speed through enemy formations, hunting enemy vessels whose kinetic barriers have been taken down by fighter-launched disruptor torpedoes and missiles, and wounding those that aren't, with their spinal particle cannons. The wolf-pack circle-strafes vulnerable targets, using their superior speed and manoeuvrability to evade return fire._

_United Nations frigates are named for great battles in human history._

**Starships: Destroyers**

_Destroyers are heavily armed frigate-sized vessels designed to screen capital ships from enemy fighters and frigates. They are armed in a similar manner to bombers, but on the scale of a warship. As such, the scale of their armament is increased comparatively. Destroyers cull enemy fighter squadrons using their massive batteries of short range laser weapons and stream-fire railguns. They are also equipped with missiles, in numbers well beyond overkill for ships of their size._

_During combat, destroyers will also be deployed in support of bomber squadrons to assault enemy capital ships. A single destroyer, with its enormous array of missiles, magnetic accelerators and lasers, can gut a cruiser. Unfortunately, to maintain the manoeuvrability that they share with frigates, destroyers eschew heavy armour, making them highly vulnerable to return fire while hunting capital ships._

_Destroyers are named after cities on Earth lost to the BETA_

**Starships: Cruisers [Addendum – United Nations Cruisers]**

_Cruiser-weight starships are the standard combat unit encountered away from large naval bases, the "poor bloody infantry" of most fleets. Nimble scouting frigates have neither the punch nor the stamina to stand up to serious combat, agile destroyers have the firepower but lack the durability, and the mighty battleships are a strategic resource, carefully kept away from front line naval combat and committed to only the most critical battles._

_Cruisers form the core of the fleets defending the colonies, supported by dreadnoughts, and lead flotillas of frigates in small engagements, such as pirate suppression campaigns. In major fleet engagements, cruiser squadrons protect the core of the formation, usually a carrier or battleship, by screening their flanks against enemies attempting to manoeuvre for a main gun "bow shot" from their vulnerable broadsides._

_United Nations cruisers are named after the cities of Earth and her colonies._

**Starships: Dreadnoughts [Addendum – United Nations Dreadnoughts]**

_Dreadnoughts are the heavy capital ships of system defence fleets, supported by large numbers of cruisers; the dreadnought is considered the ultimate arbiter of defensive firepower, with millions of tonnes of metal, ceramic and polymer dedicated to projecting firepower capable of destroying any vessel of any size and firepower that intrudes into its home system._

_A dreadnoughts power lies in the length of its main gun. Dreadnoughts are typically 1600 metres in length, with the main gun running most of the length. The a 1500 metre mass accelerator is capable of accelerating one 200 kilogram slug to a velocity of 7145km/s every twelve seconds. Each slug has the kinetic energy of 1.22 megatons of TNT, more than thirty two times the energy released by the fission weapon that destroyed Berlin. As such, being anywhere within sight of a dreadnought is equivalent to already being dead. If a dreadnought is used to bombard a planet, there must be something there that needs to be annihilated out of existence._

_When used to bombard planets, some of this kinetic energy is lost due to atmospheric re-entry friction. As a rule of thumb, each Earth-atmosphere of air pressure saps approximately 20% of projectiles impact energy. Not that this is any consolation to the inhabitants of said planet._

_In addition to their ridiculously powerful main cannon, dreadnoughts also employ broadside mass accelerators of similar power to those of a cruiser, in the event that the massive vessel is too close to the enemy ship to use the spinal gun._

_United Nations dreadnoughts are named after mountains on Earth._

**Starships: Battleships**

_To be caught in close range combat with a battleship is to have been written off as dead. The kilometre-long warships are designed precisely for that role, with mass accelerator and particle cannon broadsides capable of gutting a shielded dreadnought. Battleships can also take as much as they can dish out, with armour massing millions of tonnes and metres thick, reinforced with a honey-combed hull superstructure to absorb impacts._

_Despite being designed for devastating enemy ships at point blank range, the sheer cost of producing them means they are rarely used in such a role, and are relegated to system defence and orbital bombardment._

_When battleships do engage in naval warfare, however, they plow straight into the enemy fleet through gaps in the line made by cruisers, frigates and bombers, before utterly annihilating everything around it. Other tactics include FTL jumping them into close proximity of enemy capital ships, decapitating the enemy fleet in one strike._

_In the event that cruiser support is unavailable, battleships are mounted with a pair of cruiser-scale spinal cannons._

_Battleships are named after famous last stand battles from pre-BETA Earth._

**Starships: Carriers**

_All races provide their fleets with organic fighter support. Cruisers fit a handful in the space between the interior pressure hulls and exterior armor. Dreadnoughts have a hangar deck within the hull. Humans – who had only "recently graduated" from surface to space combat – were the first to build ships wielding fighters as the main armament._

_In fleet combat, carriers stay clear of battle, launching fighters bearing disruptor torpedoes and anti-ship missiles. Fighters are the primary striking power of the ship; if a carrier enters mass accelerator range of the enemy, things have gone very wrong. This is, however, not the worst possible scenario, as carriers still more heavily armed and armoured than cruisers, mounting a 900 metre mass accelerator, along with large numbers of stream-fire railguns and missile batteries. Some tactics even call for the carrier to act as the centre of the main formation in a front line battle._

_It is possible to recover and rearm fighters during combat, though most carriers seal the flight deck and try to stay out of the way. To limit the damage that could be done by a well-placed torpedo or missile strike, the launch decks of carriers are sectioned off outriggers of the main hull; that is, they are separated from the hull by armour in volumes equivalent to the exterior of the ship. The launch decks are further protected by massive numbers of defence lasers._

_United Nations Fleet carriers are named after the lost ancient cities of Earth, while Assault carriers are named after ones from human mythology._

**Starships: Strike Fighters**

_Strike fighters are single-pilot small craft. Their high-thrust, high efficiency engines and manoeuvring thrusters make them capable of much greater acceleration and sharper manoeuvres than starships. During combat, strike fighters are loaded with anti-fighter micro-missiles, in addition to their stream mass accelerators. Against warships, they are armed with anti-ship missiles, which are sometimes loaded with thermonuclear warheads._

_They are also used to screen friendly bombers from enemy fighter craft._

_Strike fighters are designed as atmospheric/exo-atmospheric craft, and are capable of launching from the surface of a planet to fight in orbit. However, due to the lengthy amount of time required for them to reach orbit, strike fighters launching from the ground will often launch using modular multi-stage rocket systems._

_During operations within a planet's atmosphere, strike fighters will typically carry air-to-ground and air-to-air missiles in place of the more specialised anti-ship and space-anti-fighter missiles._

_Each model of fighter is named after a type of faery._

**Starships: Bombers**

_Bombers are long-ranged two-to-three man craft that are somewhat larger than strike fighters. They are used to perform close range attacks against enemy capital ships during space combat, using the enormous numbers of anti-ship missiles carried in their internal bays and on their wing and fuselage hardpoints, along with railgun streams to use when missiles have been expended._

_Bombers are much slower and less manoeuvrable than fighters, and have little anti-fighter armament beyond their nose mounted railguns; squadrons of bombers must be escorted by fighters, lest they be picked off by enemy fighters._

_Like fighters, bombers are also atmospheric/exo-atmospheric craft, and can engage in planetary combat. During such missions, however, their main armaments are exchanged for smart-freefall bombs and air-to-ground missiles, and the mass of their loads must be reduced to allow them to actually leave the ground._

_Each model of bomber is named after a type of ghost or shadow._

* * *

><p><strong>Hey guys its been two weeks, sorry I took that long. And sorry that the codex is longer than the chapter...I'm better at writing factional then fictional. Anyway, question time:<strong>

**-Kaioo: definitely don't want to go that route. Too cliche, too boring.**

**-angrycritique: Yes I've downplayed the BETA. Its post-Alternative Earth in Mass Effect. And I do have an explanation for why the BETA aren't everywhere, and for why the Citadel hasn't encountered them. And for why they don't adapt they way you might expect. As for the Heavy-laser, they can't hit things directly overhead. According to the wiki (which is taken from the various source books), [heavy-lasers] **are effective against targets of up to a mere 500 meters high, and a spectacular range of over 100 kilometers . **26000 kilometres doesn't even make sense, since that distance is longer than the diameter of the Earth, and considering their 500 metre max altitude, you would have to be in a ridiculous and impractically high orbit. **

**To further differ humanity from the Citadel races, I've given humanity new classes of ships, or change existing ones significantly.**

**Frigates: imagine the Normandy SR-1, with a longer, slightly wider cargo bay.**

**Destroyers: Same as a UN Frigate, but with the cargo bay turned into an enormous missile pod. Also picture lots of guns poking out of the hull.**

**Battleships: Cross an Alliance Dreadnought with a Halcyon-cruiser from Halo. And then tack on hundreds of broadside guns.**

**Carriers: the colony ships from Muv-Luv Unlimited.**

**See you guys next time.**

**EDIT: Thanks Ordo Rolanberry for point out my calculation error.**


	4. Contact Procedures

24th April, 2157

_Taiyun Base, Shanxi. 20 kilometres from Objective 02._

1st Lieutenant Mari Bridges wiped the sweat from her brow. Despite how cool and temperate Shanxi was, it was a lot of work scrubbing the BETA guts off of her F-62 Comet. Especially since the TSF was 18.2 metres tall. It had taken the maintenance crew eighteen hours so far to clean the gunk out of the jump-engines alone, and they were still going. Then there was still all the maintenance to be done on the mechanical and electronic systems, not to mention the downtime repairs to her reactors.

She looked around the hangar, taking in the sight of so many damaged and battered TSFs. Of the forty-four pilots that had entered the hive, only eighteen had emerged, and of those, five were going to be unfit for combat for years to come. Orbital bombardment, no matter how powerful, no matter how devastating, would always miss a few Forts and most of the BETA that were deep underground.

After Mari and Sasha had linked up with the Phoenix II's from the 81st Light Assault and the Sentinel Tanks and Thresher IFVs from the 43rd Light Armoured, they'd been redirected, along with the rest of the overwatch units from the 54th, to support the Marines from the 258th Light Armoured who were clearing the area where Taiyun Base was being set up.

And once the important areas of the base were set up, namely the vehicle repair hangars, the base medical centre and the barracks, Mari was able to sit and watch as the battered remains of the assault battalions stagger in. Despite the fact that they successfully destroyed the Hive, less than half of the forces that had gone in had managed to return.

Much of 3rd Squadron had been among the casualties, along with Colonel Locke, the Helljumpers commander. They were reorganising into five five-pilot TSF squadrons, with Captain Smith being promoted to Battalion Commander. Mari had managed to score herself a promotion to 1st Lieutenant.

The base had also been reinforced by two companies of Phoenix-IIs from the 81st, who had been dropped a few kilometres from the hive; something about "rescuing a few VIPs." The whole explanation seemed fishy, but she wasn't going to question it. They hadn't taken very serious casualties, despite having been dropped right into the middle of a regiments-worth of BETA. Because of that, they didn't need much in the way of repairs or reorganisation, and had been assigned as the primary base defence unit until the area was cleared enough for the fleets' frigates to land and pick them up.

Mari stopped scrubbing and admired her handiwork. She had managed to scour the BETA gore from the left shoulder block of her Comet. And it had only taken her three hours.

Sasha climbed up next to her on the scaffolding. Despite her TSF being equipped as an Impact Guard, the loadout for which included a Melee Halberd, Sasha's Comet was significantly less gore-plastered; she'd finished cleaning up her fighter over an hour ago. They didn't even need to de-gunk her engines.

"Yo, Bridges, did you hear the scuttlebutt about the fleet?"

"_No_," Mari looked at her, puzzled, "I've spent all my time cleaning my bird. What's the word?"

"There's something big going on up in the fleet. Something big. Apparently Lt General Williams cancelled his visit the base and stepped down as commander of the Expeditionary Fleet because of it. Rear Admiral Rush is in charge now."

"Hmm….."

"It might have something to do with the pilots from the 81st Battalion. The ones who went to pick up those 'VIPs'. A few of us were going to ask around and see what we can dig up. You in?"

Mari paused, and then looked at her still coated fighter.

Sasha got the message. "Come find me once you're done. Then we can really get digging."

* * *

><p><em>UNS Athens, in orbit over Shanxi<em>

"General, the translation program is finished."

"Good. Upload the program to my neural hardware. And tell everyone who worked on it 'good job'."

"Yes General."

"Have Lieutenant Commander Shepard join me outside our guests' quarters. Time for some negotiations."

* * *

><p>Lieutenant Sorus Vakarian stood up as the human known as Williams entered the room. Behind him were Shepard, and another human female, a shorter one with short yellow fur.<p>

Sorus was expecting another probing mind-meld, so he readied himself.

What he was not expecting was for Williams to being speaking in turian standard.

"Allow me to reintroduce myself. I am Lieutenant General Frederic Williams of the United Nations Marine Corps." He gestured to Shepard, "You've already met Lieutenant Commander Hannah Shepard, United Nations Navy. And who you haven't met before, is Professor Anita Goyle, our governments' representative."

It took Sorus a moment to realise that Williams wasn't actually speaking the language; instead, the sound was emitting from a small speaker sitting near Williams's mouth. Williams himself wasn't actually moving his mouth. _Hmm, neural implants?_

Sorus thought for a moment, before replying. "I am Lieutenant Sorus Vakarian, ground forces commander, assigned to the cruiser _Indomitable_, of the Turian Hierarchy Navy and the Citadel Defence Fleet."

Williams scratched his hairless head. "Good to meet you, Lieutenant. Now, my government has asked me to begin negotiations with your people on their behalf. But before that, since you are military, would you care for a tour of our ship?"

"Certainly, General. But first, I have to ask, on behalf of my men and the Hierarchy, what were those monsters that attacked us down there before? And what shot us down?"

Williams paused, before switching off his translator and saying something to Goyle, who nodded and walked away. Then he turned back to Vakarian.

"If you'll follow me, I'll show you."

Williams and Shepard led Vakarian, Karick and Piran to what appeared to be a briefing room. There was a large screen built into the wall, and what appeared to be a large holo-projector in at the centre of the 'stage'. Sorus made sure that they were all recording. They needed some evidence that they could use in their reports.

"Now, those things that attacked you, we call those 'BETA'," he said the word in his own language, "which stands for 'Being of Extra-Terrestrial origin that is the Adversary of the human race'." He repeated the acronym an approximation in turian. He pulled up a hologram of the red ones that had attacked his downed shuttle. "They come in numerous varieties. The ones that attacked you are called 'Tank-class'.

"Now, to explain this, we need to give you some background for why we fight these things. You were on that shuttle because you were observing the battle, correct?" Vakarian nodded. Williams pulled up a hologram of a planet. Its surface was rust red. "This is Mars, the fourth planet in our home system, Sol. During our early unmanned exploration of our solar system, we encountered the BETA on Mars. We lost contact with the probes immediately afterwards."

Williams pulled up another hologram, this time of a blue-green-brown planet with a large grey moon orbiting it. Williams stepped back. "This is Earth, our homeworld. If negotiations work out, maybe you can visit some time. Anyhow, a few years after our encounter with the BETA on Mars, we found them on our moon, Luna. They destroyed our bases and killed all of our personnel, leading us to wage war against them for six years on the surface. We lost, and they began to land on Earth." The hologram shifted to focus on _Earth_, and a red circle appeared on its largest continent. Then the red slowly began growing in random directions, and off to the side there was a number shown in both human and turian numerals, which Vakarian assumed to be the year that the events had taken place. 1973, 1974, 1975…

Williams continued, "Eventually, after decades of defeats, we lost the majority of Eurasia." The most massive of the continents was completely red, aside from a few large islands and a large chunk of land on the eastern side. The year counter read 1998. "That continent was the most populated on the planet, with over seventy percent of our population. By this point the population of Earth was down to around one billion." The counter continued to tick, and the red slowly expanded.

"After a series of desperate attacks on the main hives," Williams pulled up an image of a BETA hive on the wall-screen, "we managed to stall the BETA enough to wipe them from the face of our planet."

Vakarian watched as the red marks on the globe began to recede. It was a slow process, and Sorus watched the counter tick over from 2001, continuing until it hit 2012, where there was no more red on the map. It stopped counting.

Piran spoke up, "Those numbers there, those are the years, correct?"

"Yes, Trooper Piran," said Shepard.

"Then what year is it now, by your calendar?"

"It is currently 2157. The last BETA on Earth was killed 145 years ago. There aren't any humans left alive from the time." Piran nodded.

Williams stepped back up to the holo-projector. "Now, to your other question, Lieutenant Vakarian, what shot you down?" Several small creatures appeared on the projector. Sorus recognised the _Tank-class_ that had attacked his men, along with two much smaller figures representing humans and turians. He noticed that each and every one of the creatures was shown as being larger than them.

"Is this to scale?"

"Yes."

"Hmm..." Vakarian didn't show it, but inside he was completely astonished. Some of them were over thirty times the height of a turian. "So which one shot us down?"

Williams pointed to two of the figures. Both looked like asari brains with eyes and legs. The one with two eyes stood around three metres tall, while the other one, the single eyed one, looked to be around twenty.

"This is a Laser-class, and this is a Heavy Laser-class. The BETA use them as anti-air platforms. Although since your shuttle crashed instead of being vaporised, we can assume it was a regular Laser-class."

Karick pitched in, "Laser-class?"

"Explaining it would require a biophysicist, a particle physicist, an engineer, and a tanker full of alcohol. It's complicated, but the BETA originally deployed them in response to our air forces decimating them during the initial Earth landings."

"So what did you use to win?"

"I believe that you three have already seen them. We call them Tactical Surface Fighters. I'll show you some combat footage that we have for training purposes." A vid loaded on the screen. "This footage is from 159 years ago, from the Fall of Kyoto. This footage was taken recovered from the TSF of a young pilot named Yui Takamura, who was fourteen years old at the time of the battle."

Before he had realised it, Sorus had spent hours watching old combat footage and discussing strategy with his men and General Williams. Shepard had left a while ago, saying something about "duties that had to be attended to".

Williams had decided to call it a night, promising to give them the tour later.

* * *

><p><em>Taiyun Base<em>

Mari followed Sasha into the hangar that normally housed the Phoenixes used by the Marines of C Company, 81st Light Assault Battalions. It had taken them quite a bit of digging to figure out that the Marines who had rescued the "VIPs" the other day had been part of the battalions' C and E Companies. Unfortunately, nearly all of the pilots from those companies were out on patrol or on scout missions.

Except for, according to what they'd dug up, a single squad from C Company, who were down for maintenance and repairs.

Mari turned to one of the TSFs, since her neural net had tagged a Marine in that direction as a pilot from C Company. As she walked over to it, she could see a pair of short, slim legs in rolled up work coveralls poking out from underneath AWS-38 assault cannon. She could hear a quiet voice mumbling from under the TSF scale gun.

As she got closer, her implants tagged the pilot as one "PFC Yoruda, Shizuka; Pilot, 5th Squad, C Company, 81st Light Assault Battalion. Age: 17. Service Number: 25963-84571-SY."

"Ariel, I've calibrated the secondary targeting array. Try to –"

* * *

><p>Shizuka shuddered and went quiet as she felt two very curious presences approach her. She slid out from under the assault cannon. And was greeted by two women in their mid-twenties, one with a devious grin on her face, and the other looking obviously curious, but also had a somewhat worried look in her eyes.<p>

The grinning one looked down at her. "Hey there, Private, do you have a minute?"

Shizuka felt a chill run through her small body.

* * *

><p>25th April, 2157<p>

_UNS Athens_

Arys Daela's eyes opened, and she found herself staring up at a white ceiling. By the Goddess, her head was throbbing, like she had been out drinking with some maidens. Her hearing was coming back, and she could hear voices. Except that they weren't in any language she recognised.

Then she heard a shout, there were footsteps that seemed to be coming towards her, and then there was a face looking down at her. Rather, more of a darkened visor than a face. The mask spoke, again in that unknown language. Arys shook her head. _I don't know what you're saying. I don't understand!_

"Are you alright? Can you tell me what your name is?" _Huh? What? I understood that!_

It took her a moment to realise that the unknown being was speaking turian. Her translator recognised it and switched itself to project in turian.

"Who are you?" Arys croaked out the words. It felt like she hadn't spoken in years.

"Hold on, I'll inform the General." The 'turian' spoke a few words at nothing in the unidentified language, before looking back at her. "Now, what was your name?"

"Arys. Arys Daela."

"I see. Do you know what happened before you crashed?"

The memories came back to Arys somewhat blurred. But the images cleared and she remembered.

"I was on a shuttle. From the _Indomitable_. We were supposed to observe and if possible make contact with the aliens from the ships we encountered. I don't remember anything after that. Medicae, do you know if we made contact with those people?"

"You're speaking with one right now."

_Huh?!_

The medicae depolarised the visor, and Daela found herself staring at a face that was so much like her own.

* * *

><p>Lieutenant Vakarian, with Troopers Karick and Piran, was being led down the corridor to what was presumably the hangar bay of the ship by General Williams and some of his Marines. Since Williams had said "hangar", Sorus had assumed that he was on-board a dreadnought, since by Citadel standards, only a dreadnought was large enough to warrant having a full size hangar. Or maybe it was one of those super-dreadnoughts that had been spotted by the <em>Indomitable<em>.

Williams stopped and looked at Sorus. "Lieutenant, I have some good news for you. Your asari scientist, Doctor Arys Daela, is awake. We'll visit her later in the tour. Now then, this is TSF Hangar Three."

Sorus was amazed at the sight. More than forty TSFs, much larger than the ones that rescued him on the surface, stood silently, locked to the hangar walls. Retractable walkways crossed infront of the sleeping giants, as maintenance crews worked on the machines.

Williams was still talking. "These are UN Navy F-60 Yukikaze II Heavy-TSFs. As you can see, they haven't been launched. I would say something about Navy flyboys, but it wouldn't be polite to do that in front of guests. Especially since, in reality, these machines are going to be used to hit the next Hive." The General caught on to the turians gaping. "It's always amazing to see how far humanity has come from walking tanks and hydrocarbon jet engines. I'd ask you boys if you wanted to take one for a spin, but the Navy is oddly adamant about their 'neural-only' systems, and this is a Navy carrier. Sorry about that."

"It's not a problem General. I should also point out that Piran is female."

"Oh. I meant no offence, Trooper Piran. I couldn't tell."

Piran nodded. "None taken. You aren't likely to meet a female turian outside of turian space."

"I see."

"General, if I may ask, how do you have room for all of this? Where are the primary gun batteries? The broadsides? There's no way you could fit this all on a dreadnought."

"This isn't a dreadnought. It's a type of ship we call a 'carrier'. Primary armaments in space combat are strike fighters and bombers. The other carrier in the fleet, the _Atlantis_, mostly carries ground troops, vehicles and TSFs."

"Interesting concept."

* * *

><p><em>Indomitable, near Relay 314.<em>

The assault fleet was finally ready to jump through Relay 314 to take on the law-breaking aliens who were bombarding the garden world on the other side. _And to avenge my men_, thought Captain Decius Fortix.

The plan was simple. A probe would be sent through the relay, and if no enemy forces were present, the entire fleet would jump through as a single unit. Following the relay transit, the fleet would FTL jump to approximately 300,000km from the planet, now designated 314A1-4[G], which stood for Relay 314, Primary System, Fourth Planet [Garden World]. Once the fleet was in range, they would order the aliens to stand down and surrender to the might of the Hierarchy. Then they would be made into a client race. If they didn't surrender, their puny fleet would be annihilated.

"Sir," reported Lieutenant Victus, "probe telemetry is being downloaded to the fleet. Scans look clear."

The communications officer, Lieutenant Varulis, spoke up, "Captain, General Arterius has ordered the fleet to jump."

Fortix nodded, before setting his omni-tool to transmit across the whole ship.

"All hands, prepare for relay jump."

* * *

><p><em>UNS Athens<em>

Williams was continuing the tour, and was about to detour the turians to the medical bay so they could meet their asari companion, when the alarms began to sound.

"Deja, what's going on?"

"Admiral Rush has ordered the fleet to full alert. A few minutes ago, the probes orbiting the Theta Relay detected a very large number of ships similar in design to the _Indomitable._ It is highly likely that this is in response to our bombardment of Shanxi, and the turians may have associated the Expeditionary Fleet with the crash of Lieutenant Vakarian's shuttle two days ago."

"Dammit. Tell Rush not to do anything rash." He turned to his turian guests. "Lieutenant, looks like you three get to go home. I'll have a dropship prepped. If you would be so kind, could you please keep your friends from shooting at us?"

"We'll try, General." Vakarian saluted, Piran and Karick following suit within a heartbeat. Williams returned their salute, before nodding. "Oh, and General," said Vakarian, "tell Lieutenant Commander Shepard that I'd love to meet her daughter some time, once this is all over."

Williams nodded, before turning to the Marine guard. "Get these three to the hangar. They've got a war to prevent."

Deja pinged him again. "Sir, the ships have jumped. They are most likely on their way here."

* * *

><p><em>Taiyun Base<em>

Shizuka lay in bed, clawing at her ears as the extremely loud noise dug its way into her skull. Until she realised that it was the bases alert siren. And that the bed she was in wasn't her bunk in the enlisted barracks. And that she was completely naked. And that next to her lay the equally naked 1st Lieutenants Sasha Ivanova and Mari Bridges. And that there were empty bottles scattered around the room. Her face went bright red.

_Oh God, what did I do last night!?_

Still slightly hung-over, the young pilot dressed herself as quickly as she could and woke up the unconscious Lieutenants with a volley of underwear and uniform pieces, before taking off towards the hangar bay.

* * *

><p><em>UNS Athens, Dropship Launch-bay 03<em>

Sorus Vakarian was seated next to the human communications officer on the shuttle, which he had learned was called a D-22 Sabretooth, frantically tapping on his omni-tool, trying to sync the shuttle's long-range communications system to it. In the seats behind him, Piran and Karick were shuffling through the data they had collected, chopping together a report that would, hopefully, convince the fleet to stand down. They had included just about everything, from their own mission reports, casualty reports from the crash, their combat footage of the BETA, plus as much as they could piece together from their recordings from their time aboard the _Athens_.

A voice came over the radio. "Badger 2-4, you are cleared for launch. Godspeed, boys."

"Roger that, _Athens_ Control. Badger 2-4, lifting off," replied the pilot.

Sorus was slammed into his seat as the shuttle was accelerated down the carrier's launch rails.

* * *

><p><em>Indomitable, CIC<em>

"Captain," said the _Indomitable's_ helmsman, "FTL jump complete. We are within the fleets' safety margin, and are in position at the front of the firing line."

"Captain, General Arterius is ordering all ships to standby, awaiting orders."

* * *

><p><em>Athens, CIC<em>

"General, turians ships detected emerging from FTL one light second out, within ecliptic."

Williams watched the ships appear on the holo-projector. Some of them were quite large. _But not a big as my carrier_.

"Vector Badger 2-4 towards the fleet. All ships, rotate primary weapons towards the turian fleet. Assume neutral unless fired upon."

* * *

><p><em>Indomitable, CIC<em>

"General!" shouted Lieutenant Victus, "shuttle detected vectoring towards us at high velocity."

"Target it. If it gets too close, destroy it." _An eye for an eye, huh._

* * *

><p><em>Badger 2-4<em>

Sorus set the shuttle's communications system to transmit on every turian and Citadel frequency he was privy to. He turned to Piran, who gave a 'thumbs up', as Williams had called it, and held up her omni-tool, which was ready to transmit a large, hyper compressed data packet.

Sorus nodded, and then turned to the human seated next to him. "You ready?"

"Nope, but really mate, who could be ready for something like this?" The human let out a broken laugh. "Alright, here goes." The human switched on the transmitter.

"Turian Fleet, this is Lieutenant Sorus Vakarian of the cruiser _Indomitable_. I repeat, this is Lieutenant Sorus Vakarian of the cruiser _Indomitable. _Stand down. The humans are not hostile. I repeat the humans are not hostile. Transmitting verification codes."

* * *

><p><em>Indomitable, CIC<em>

Lieutenant Adrien Victus stood up from his console. "Captain, the shuttle appears to be transmitting. Multiple frequencies." Victus looked puzzled. "Captain, each of the frequencies is Hierarchy military or Citadel Defence."

Fortix stared at him, before turning to the communications officer. "Lieutenant Varulis, put it on the loud-speaker. I want to hear this."

" –_rian of the cruiser _Indomitable_. I repeat, this is Lieutenant Sorus Vakarian of the cruiser _Indomitable_. Stand down. The humans are not hostile. I repeat the humans are not hostile. Transmitting verification codes."_

_He's alive? It can't be._

"Lieutenant?"

"Sir, the codes check out. It really is Lieutenant Vakarian."

"Dammit. Crew, stand down. Varulis, open a channel to that shuttle."

"Right away sir. Also, General Arterius demands to know why the _Indomitable _is standing down."

"Tell him we are in communications with the alien shuttle."

"Yes, sir. And sir, the link to the shuttle is ready."

"Good. Patch me in."

A familiar face appeared on the three main view-screens.

"Captain Fortix, Good to see you again."

"Lieutenant Vakarian. Care to explain why you are on an alien shuttle?"

Vakarian clicked his mandibles. "Ugh, right. Long story, sir. Anyway, I have Troopers Piran and Karick with me, and we've compiled a report of the shuttle crash, along with what we've learned about the aliens. They're called humans, by the way. Oh, and Doctor Daela is still alive as well. She woke up this morning, and we were about to visit her when your fleet jumped into the system."

"I see. Transmit me your report then. I need a reason to convince General Arterius not to blow up your new friends' fleet."

"Yes sir, although I should notify you that it's a fairly big report." Vakarian turned away for a moment. "Piran reports that we are ready to transmit the data packet."

Lieutenant Varulis spoke up. "General, we are receiving the data now. It's a large transfer."

"I see. Isolate one of your consoles from the system, and run the package in safe mode."

"Yes sir. Items are indexed. First item is a video recording. It appears to be from three synced helmet cameras. Time-stamped to not long after the shuttle crashed two days ago. Attached is a casualty report."

"Vakarian, we've received the package and are verifying it now. Have your shuttle standby at 20,000 kilometres off the bow of the _Indomitable_."

"Yes, Captain," came the reply.

"Varulis, put it up on the centre screen."

Decius Fortix watched as Vakarian, Karick and Piran ran for their lives through the forest, dragging Doctor Daela with them, as the red monsters devoured Sergeant Vierius and Trooper Rakal, before proceeding to tear apart the shuttle, which still contained the bodies of Flight Lieutenant Haxal and Troopers Bentar and Warick.

"The humans call them 'BETA'. They've been fighting them for nearly two of their centuries. Those ones are 'Tank-classes'."

"I see."

On the screen, Vakarian and his men reached the clearing, only to find themselves completely surrounded. He heard the heavy thumps, which was followed by the ground team looking around frantically. There was a shout, and dozens of 9 metre giants were surrounding the team, firing into the hordes. Vakarian and his men were dragged aboard a shuttle that landed nearby.

"By the spirits, what were those?"

"The humans call them Tactical Surface Fighters. Seems that they've been their primary weapon for combating the BETA since they first encountered them. Think of it as a giant security mech, only piloted, and capable of flight and near-perfect optical stealth. Apparently they were an offshoot of their atmospheric fighters. We've seen some of their combat footage from before the humans left their solar system, and there is a type of BETA that is capable of producing lasers capable of destroying warships."

"You really expect me to believe that?"

"Sir, the Laser-class are the very reason they developed TSFs and their active camouflage systems. Apparently, during the early invasion, they were only able to hold the BETA back with massed numbers of airdropped munitions, which failed once the Laser-classes appeared. TSFs were the human's response to that. Their active camouflage systems are a further development to defend against Lasers. The reason we were shot down was because the BETA saw us. The active camo allowed the humans to rescue us. It's all in my report, sir."

"I see. I'll pass this intel along to General Arterius. I'll try to convince him to stand down."

"Thank you, sir. Now, I'd better return General Williams' shuttle." Vakarian raised his hand to his head in salute. Fortix returned the gesture.

* * *

><p><strong>Codex<strong>:

**Technology: Neural Networks**

_One of the staples of human society and military, the neural network implant has become ubiquitous throughout humanity. The network is constructed of nano-chelated circuitry connecting to the various centres of the brain. The basic components are a dispersed microframe computer, cortical stimulators, and wireless interfaces for various kinds of technology._

_Additional functions vary depending on the type of implant issued by the UN government. They range from simple visual display systems and touch interfaces, for say, opening a door; to the full body neural interceptors implanted in TSF and Strike Fighter pilots._

_The neural interceptors interrupt signals all signals from the motor cortex to the body, instead interpreting them into movements for the vehicle to perform. In a sense, the vehicle becomes the pilots body. For Hardiman drivers, it is a simple process, since the suit instead copies the users' neural signals and uses them to amplify the users' movements. It is a more complicated story for TSF and Strike Fighter pilots, since operating those requires a whole area of movement unavailable to normal humans. As such, additional systems are grown into the brains of pilots corresponding to the necessary parts of the vehicle. For pilots, this is necessary to allow fluid, precise and instinctual control over their vehicles during flight and combat._

_Military personnel and enthusiastic civilians often modify their hardware, software, and their wetware interfaces. Some, who enjoy the "classical" feel of keyboards, employ a simple visual interface along with haptic stimulators in the motor cortex to emulate the feeling of using a real keyboard._

**Technology: Electronic Camouflage Fields**

_Electronic Camouflage Fields, or ECFs, are mounted on all United Nations combat vehicles, from Hardimans to TSFs and Dropships. The system works by generating an energy field that bends light around it._

_ECF was developed to try and mask aircraft and TSFs from Laser-class BETA, after testing proved that they located their targets using a range of infrared and visual light. As such, the field refracts light around the machine, and absorbs as much heat as possible, while dispersing the rest carefully. As a result, the field can be disrupted by running a vehicles energy output above a certain point. During TSF Orbital Dives, there is an altitude called the "safe level", the altitude above which a TSFs required deceleration thrust is beyond what the field can sustain. Running close to the limit will cause the field to shimmer, as the heat begins to leak into the air around the vehicle._

_Weapons fire will also cause ECFs to break, due since the field projectors cannot keep up with the rapid electromagnetic discharges within its confines. This is, however, limited to electromagnetic accelerator weapons, so traditional chemically powered weapons will work within the field. However, these are rarely used, due to the reduced firepower and ammunition capacity of chemical propelled weaponry._

_ECF systems can also be used by regular infantry units, but each individual must carry an enlarged fuel cell to power the device. The weight is offset by the fact that most United Nations Infantrymen are equipped with light-exoskeleton systems as part of their combat gear._

* * *

><p><strong>So, I tried to fix my writing pace by hammering out this chapter today, but I've spent something like 8 hours on it, and I'm pretty tired, so I'll try to work out something I'm comfortable with.<strong>

**Alright, now review question time:**

**-HolyKnight5: I really don't want to give anybody the stupid stick. I might give someone the ignorance stick, but that would be balanced out by making them _reasonable_. Thats something I never understood about Mass Effect. Nobody seems to think clearly, and it comes down to someone overreacting to something. Turians attacking a race that is new to the galaxy for trying to activate a relay, Quarians attempting to wipe out the geth because they accidentally created AI, the Council refusing Krogan expansion after the Rachni wars. Nobody ever seems to sit down and think things through. So I'm not going to dump the blame on Desolas. Hell, I might not dump the blame on anybody. Oh, and I'm thinking about a future events where turians and maybe salarians have TSFs, due to their combat utility.**

**-Ordo Rolanberry: Yeah thanks for pointing out the error. I adjusted it, but it didn't feel powerful enough for what I was looking at. So I increased the mass of the rounds by an order of magnitude. Now its fun.**

**-To Mr Guest: right...sure...first time fic...ok then. And I already did the timeline. And if you actually played Mass Effect, you would notice that most of the codex entries in _Aliens_ are rewritten entries from the games.**

**-Imabot: I really want to avoid one of the cliche curbstomp First Contact War scenarios. While they can be interesting, in the end it comes down to "our tech is better because X". Sometimes it can come out good, where humanity is only slightly better, or humanity is made ridiculously powerful for the sake of hilarity. But the middle ground is just annoying. So here, human ships might be more diverse and some of them might be more powerful than their Citadel counterparts, but they are balanced by a complete lack of Element Zero, slower FTL, and space combat tactics based purely on theory. Even the fighters, which don't have use Eezo cores, have to manoeuvre in a completely different way. And no disruptor torpedoes. UN Anti-ship missiles rely completely on their impact velocity and the energy from the warhead detonation, hence the nuclear anti-ship missiles. tl;dr, The only real advantage that UN ships have in this fic are more diverse tactics, bigger dreadnought guns. And particle cannons. How did I forget particle cannons?**

**-Kinunatzs: The way I see it, the reason espers are able to translate the "thoughts" of BETA minds is because the BETA don't have a language; It's all concepts and emotions. Hence why Shepard has to absorb the memories and emotions associated with the language. As for "canon" Muv-Luv, its still Alternative, but 150 years is a long time to advance technology. And considering how rapidly the technology advances in Muv-Luv anyway...**

**Until next time, guys.**

**EDIT: Some formatting and grammar that I missed. I posted this at 10pm last night, after spending around 8 hours total writing, and I had a very early start at work this morning. So I missed a few things.**


	5. Dawn

25th April, 2157

_Taiyun Base, Shanxi_

The alert sirens had come on at the best possible time. It was Anzac Day, so most of the off-duty personnel were leaving the central courtyard after the dawn service. They would have had a briefer one in the Fleet, due to space requirements. The Australasian Marines at the base were apparently going to hold a barbeque, and had enough coffee brewing to launch a blue whale into orbit.

And then the sirens went off, and the Marines who were already up and awake we're dashing towards the hangars and barracks armouries.

Private First Class Shizuka Yoruda sat in the cockpit of her F-61, struggling to pull the flight-suit over her reinforced-suit under-layer. After her mad dash to the squad ready-room next to the hangar, she had shrugged off her uniform, gotten embarrassed again over the kiss marks and hickeys that covered her body, and then squeezed into her under-layer. Then she had tossed her already crumpled uniform in her locker and dashed off to her fighter, flight-suit in hand. She had managed to put on the lower half on her way from the ready-room, and now she was fumbling around inside the close confines of her Phoenix trying to put on the upper half of the suit while simultaneously starting up the TSFs primary systems.

The rest of the squad were already in their fighters, bantering while they awaited orders. As she fumbled with the suit, a communications window opened up on one of the screens. It was Lance Corporal Mirelle Airey, the squad marksman.

"Hey, Zuka, where'd you disappear to last night? You agreed to watch _Stellar Sensou Episode V_ with me."

Corporal Dunn butted in. "I know where she was. I saw her at the bar with two very attractive ladies from the Helljumpers."

_The two women looked down at the short young woman currently in their care. She had been very tight lipped, so they'd kept changing the subject and loosening the younger girl up with drinks, getting themselves fairly drunk in the process. Eventually, she'd quietly let out that the VIP's that C and E companies had rescued had been aliens; while on the verge of falling asleep._

_Intent on continuing their drinking after that news, they'd requisitioned a few bottles of vodka, before headed back to compartment that Mari and Sasha shared in the 54__th__'s officer barracks. Not wanting to leave the small girl behind at the bar, they'd carried her with them._

"Zuka….what happened?" asked Mirelle, with a certain cheekiness in her voice.

"Please don't remind me…"

_As they carried little Shizuka to the bed, she'd started drunkenly spouting nonsensical things about alien movies, very loudly. _

_Sasha quickly silenced her in the only way her alcohol-addled brain could think of. With a kiss. "Did that calm you down, Private?"_

_And from there…._

Shizuka felt her face flush bright red. Over the comm, she could hear Mirelle and Dunn laughing their arses off.

Sergeant Alenko cut in, "Now, now, Marines, she had a long night of having drinks forced on her by a pair of officers, be gentle with her."

_She shivered as Mari held her, as gentle as one would hold a baby…_

Shizuka's face went even redder.

* * *

><p><em>Turian Dreadnought <em>Shadows of Menae_, 300,000 kilometres from Shanxi_

"Are you sure these reports are accurate, Captain Fortix?" asked General Desolas Arterius. He had ordered the fleet to stay alert, but with their weapons locked down, while he reviewed the data transmitted by this 'Lieutenant Vakarian.'

"Sir, as far as we can tell, nothing in this report is falsified. We're still analysing the data on these so-called 'BETA', but our science team is baffled. They have no way of verifying anything short of going down to the surface and taking a look ourselves, but according to the salarian xenobiologist aboard, it is biologically impossible for an organism to generate a beam of coherent light at energy levels high enough to bring down a shuttle."

Desolas' expression darkened. "Of course there isn't."

"There is also the issue of these humans 'TSFs'. When we first arrived at the planet, we detected no Eezo-related radiation, and Lieutenant Vakarian also reported that they didn't use element zero."

"What are you trying to tell me, Captain?"

"Well, sir, our engineers have been pouring over the recordings taken by Lieutenant Vakarian, along with the ones provided to him by these 'humans'. They've come to the conclusion that there should be no way for something like that to exist; without eezo, they would collapse under their own mass."

"I see. So Vakarian must have been fooled."

"However, sir, they did point out that there would be a lot of advantages to having a weapons platform like that. That would be a lot of highly mobile firepower, not limited by terrain. And it also brings to question, what if the humans have some sort of anti-gravity technology, something that isn't dependent on the limitations of element zero?"

"So you're saying we could learn more from negotiating with these people, rather than going to war with them?"

"Yes, sir. Vakarian reports that they are highly militaristic, and that despite their apparent openness, they are most likely highly paranoid of aliens due to their experiences with the BETA. They would most likely destroy any examples of technology that could be captured. Vakarian also reports that the majority of their defensive actions in the records he was privy to turned into 'last stands'. These people are more stubborn than the Krogan. We stand to gain more from working with them than from fighting."

"Alright, I see your point. I'll report this to the Hierarchy, and have the fleet stand down for now."

"Another thing, General. The science team has requested that we report this incident to the Citadel, although they will defer to your judgement."

"Very well. I'll add that to my report. Thank you, Captain."

"General." The link cut out.

"Comms, send out a general order to the fleet. All ships are to stand down while we establish communications with these _humans_."

* * *

><p><em>UNS Petra, CIC<em>

Group-Captain John Shepard watched on the display as the _Petra_ closed in on the Arcturus Delta Relay. The ship had been almost overloaded with munitions, and its complement of fifty F-60 Yukikaze IIs, had been replaced with an additional two dozen B-7A Silhouette bombers and thirty F/A-13 Sylphs. It was something that had never happened before. No carrier ever went without ground support. And it showed just how seriously the brass was taking the threat of possible attack from spacefaring aliens. Especially since the bombers were armed thermonuclear warheads. Hell, the only thing they weren't armed with were Gray-bombs. Which hadn't been issued since one of the moons in the Alpha Centauri system had practically inverted itself during a large scale test, sixty years ago. That incident had made the military brass collectively facepalm at all of the G-bomb detonations on Earth, and they'd shifted all G-bomb production over to FTL drive construction.

He listened to the idle chatter around the CIC, rechecking the positions of the ships in his group. Two cruisers: _Sydney _and_ Johannesburg_; Three destroyers: _Mumbai, Marseille _and _Oslo_; and five frigates: _Ardennes, Saipan, Tours, Coral Sea _and _El Alamein_. A mix of ships from both the Third and Sixth Fleets. The equivalent of a small fleet under his command.

And his crew had been pulled off leave to lead it. John had been forced to leave little Terry with her grandparents in New Vancouver. The hyperactive trailblazer of a three year old had not been pleased to have been left with the elderly Shepard's. _City life really doesn't work for that kid, does it?_ _We'll have earned some extra leave after all this is over, I should probably take her somewhere she can explore. Maybe Chiron again? She did love that forest. I'll have to check if Hannah can come with us._

"Captain, all ships ready for relay transit. We are go for cluster-jump. See you all on the other side."

Shepard nodded, before setting his comm to broadcast to the entire group. "All ships, prepare for cluster-jump."

The relay began to glow brighter, as a stream of light and energy stretched out to engulf the small fleet. There was another flash, and a brief jolt of acceleration as the relay slammed the ships down its mass-effect corridor.

There was a second flash as the fleet emerged moments later.

"Drift 12000K. Relative velocity 5km/s."

_Good enough_.

"All ships, plot warp-jump to Shanxi high orbit. _Mumbai, Marseille_, overwatch as soon as we break. _Sydney, Johannesburg_, form up on the _Petra_. 24th Flotilla, perimeter picket." He turned to his CAG. "I want the _Rattlesnakes, Sidewinders _and the _Razorwings_ in the void as soon as we break warp. Then start launching the _Flamebearers_. Have the _Oslo_ back them up. Once they've all launched, begin lining up the _Star Sabres, Firesprites _and _War Eagles_ for take-off."

The ships AI, Allie, popped up on the CIC holotank. "Captain Shepard, I have made the final adjustments to the coordinates. We are ready to jump on your command."

_Let's just hope the shooting hasn't started yet._

"All ships, jump."

* * *

><p><em>UNS Athens, CIC<em>

"General, the probes around the Shanxi-Delta Relay have detected movement. The data is still processing, but it appears to be the support elements under Group-Captain Shepard."

"Keep me posted, Deja. The turians haven't shot at us yet, and I don't want the arrival of those ships to set them off. Once they're within communications range, ping them. We seem to have a cease-fire, and I won't risk that."

Deja went silent for several seconds, before disappearing from the holo-projector. It was unusual, since the processing power that AI's possessed meant that they thought in nanoseconds.

Deja popped back up again. "General, I am currently assisting Ensign Zhao with processing the data, but it appears that one of the turian ships is attempting to open communications with us."

"Put them on screen. And have Lieutenant Vakarian and Professor Goyle brought to the CIC. I want him here for this."

"Please give me a minute to convert the data formats to UN Standard. Vakarian is on his way up."

* * *

><p><em>Shadows of Menae, CIC<em>

Desolas Arterius stared at the strange face that appeared on the display. It was so much like the asari, but closer in tone to those of the quarians, and rugged and scarred like the krogan. The human spoke, but the turian voice that he was hearing didn't match the its mouth movements.

"This is Lieutenant General Williams of the United Nations Marine Corps, Commander of the Fifth Relay Expeditionary Force, aboard the UNS _Athens_. And to whom am I speaking?"

"General Desolas Arterius, Commander of the _Shadows of Menae_, of the Turian Hierarchy."

"I'll be blunt with you, General. What are the intentions of your fleet? Are you here to fight us, or intimidate us into submission? Because we do not bow to superior numbers. I'm sure Lieutenant Vakarian's reports would have told you at least that much."

"For now, this fleet will do nothing unless provoked. Originally, we were to bring you to heel for the crime of bombarding a garden world. But Vakarian's report changes things. I've already sent a report to my government, and my fleet will stand down until we receive further orders."

"I see."

Williams turned around, as if looking at something off screen. He said something in his own language, before turning back to 'face' Desolas.

"Don't be alarmed, but we have a group of our ships approaching. They will be joining my fleet in orbit around Shanxi."

Desolas turned to his sensory officer, who nodded in affirmation. He opened up the data on his omni-tool, and saw that there were eleven ships matching the now-known human configurations approaching the planet.

"Affirmative. We will not fire on your ships, so long as they do not fire on us."

"Acknowledged. _Athens,_ out."

* * *

><p><em>UNS Petra, CIC<em>

John reviewed the orders that had come through from the _Athens_. It seemed that there was a temporary ceasefire between the Expeditionary Fleet and the 'Turian' fleet. As a gesture of goodwill towards these turians, Williams had ordered his ships to join the 5th REF in Shanxi orbit, and that no craft beyond a single patrol flight were to be launched. He frowned at that. His group had emerged from warp expecting to be launching into the battlespace, but instead found two fleets quietly sitting in their respective orbits.

It wasn't what had been expected, and it seemed that the pilots aboard the _Petra_ were getting anxious about the aborted launch. But not having to launch was better than flying into battle against an enemy whose capabilities were almost a complete unknown. The strike pilots were itching for a fight, just like the fighter pilots over Europe during the Second World War.

"Captain, the patrol flight is aweigh."

"Good. Keep the other birds warmed up. We'll need them ready in case something happens."

"Aye, aye, sir."

_I don't think our ships would be able to stand up to a fleet that size._

"Comms, send an encrypted message to General Williams, requesting the authorisation of stealth fighter reconnaissance of the turian fleet."

"Message sent sir."

A few seconds later the ensign reported back. "Response from Deja, the _Athens_ AI. She says 'No.'"

Shepard let out a quiet sigh. He turned to his XO, Commander Harper, and his Marine Detachment Leader, Lieutenant Anderson.

"Keep the flyboys in line. We don't need anything setting off the turians. Talk to First Lieutenant Hackett, he usually has some pretty good ideas for calming everyone down."

The two men nodded, before heading to their stations.

* * *

><p><em>Several hours later.<em>

_Athens, CIC_

"Sir, several ships detected emerging from the Theta relay. Configuration does not match that of the turian ships." There was a pause. "They have jumped to FTL. Launch vector indicates that they are heading this way."

* * *

><p><em>Shadows of Menae, CIC<em>

"General, sir, numerous ships detected decelerating from FTL. Sensors are trying to identify them."

"What's their entry vector?"

"Directly in the path of the relay." The sensory officer paused. "Sir, drive signatures indicate three asari cruisers and a squadron of salarian frigates."

"Acknowledged, Lieutenant." _Command went straight to the council. An unusual reaction, given the circumstances._ "Open communications with them."

The holo-tank lit up, and an asari in the uniform of the Citadel Defence Force appeared.

"General Arterius, this is Captain D'varis of the asari cruiser _Illaen_. We've been assigned to escort the Council's ambassadors to meet with these _humans_."

"Understood, Captain. If I recall, the humans already have their ambassador on hand. Inform the ambassadors that I will contact the human fleet." _This should be interesting. The council seems to have over-reacted somewhat._

Desolas turned to his communications officer, who nodded. "Connecting to the human flagship."

The human, General Williams, appeared on the screen.

"Greetings, General Arterius. And to what do I owe this call? I suppose it has to do with the ships that just arrived from your relay."

"It does, General Williams. The Citadel Council has sent ambassadors to negotiate with your people."

"Understood. We have a base on the surface, in the area that we have secured. We can conduct negotiations there in a few hours."

Desolas frowned. "You honest expect me to send my people down there?"

"Yes. I will have my ships move to a geostationary orbit above the base. Your ships are welcome to join us, and you may bring up to a one hundred men as guards."

"Sounds reasonable. I will issue the necessary orders. I trust that you will do the same."

"Of course, General Arterius. _Athens, _over and out." The connection closed.

_This will be very interesting._

* * *

><p><em>Taiyun Base, Shanxi<em>

"_Remember, do not, I repeat, do not fire on the incoming shuttles those are the aliens delegates. They will have armed troops with them, so do not provoke them."_

Mari Bridges looked down at the hastily assembled honour guard. Dozens of Marines, dressed in their BDUs, since their Dress Uniforms were unavailable, lined up at the landing zone, older M6 Accipiter service rifles held in parade stance. Behind them stood a line of TSFs, of varying size and mass; Mari's Comet was embedded about midway down the line.

She gazed up, watching the unfamiliar silhouettes of the alien shuttles descend towards the runway, where a pair of frigates would have sat, had it not been for the turian fleet's arrival. And now they were waiting for the delegates from the 'Citadel Council' to arrive.

_To think that Shizuka was telling the truth about the aliens…I should probably apologise to her later._

Mari threw herself off of that train of thought as the first of the alien shuttles landed; a sleek, yet angular machine that reminded her of a hammerhead shark. Several turians stepped out of each shuttle, before lining up to match the parade formations of their human counterparts. Some of the turian soldiers looked up at the TSFs towering over them, seemingly very uncomfortable at the sight of the metal giants staring down at them.

The final two shuttles touched down, two very different designs from the turian ones. They unloaded a group of aliens that were quite different from the turians. Three that looked like bipedal frogs; a pair that, surprisingly, looked like blue humans; and a mix of short, rotund aliens and slender, human-sized ones, in environmental suits.

The Citadel delegates walked past the line of human Marines and turian soldiers, looking curiously at the humans and human technology arrayed around them as they walked towards the building that was serving as the meeting room.

* * *

><p><em>Meeting Room, Taiyun Base, Shanxi<em>

Sergeant Jor'Reegar vas Rayya of the Migrant Fleet Marines watched as human and Citadel delegates took their seats at the table. Or rather, the delegates that weren't quarian sat at the table, while those who were stood at the back with the guards. Three centuries since the geth, and they were still outcasts from the rest of the galaxy. They were lucky to have even been allowed on the _Illaen_.

To his right, Ambassador Kellan'Nara vas Iban twitches slightly. The human delegate has begun speaking, in slightly broken turian.

"Thank you for coming. We'll start with introductions. I'm Professor Anita Goyle, the ambassador appointed by the United Nations of Earth and her Colonies. To my right is Lieutenant General Frederic Williams, of the United Nations Marine Corps. He is the commander of the Expeditionary Fleet in orbit."

Williams turned to one of the turians and nodded. "General Arterius." The turian returned the gesture.

The delegates each introduced themselves in turn. Jor noticed that General Williams raised an eyebrow when Ambassador 'Nara introduced himself, most likely noting that the quarian delegate was the only one not seated at the table. If Goyle noticed, she gave no sign.

Goyle began again. "So I'm sure you all have a lot of questions…"

* * *

><p><em>Unspecified amount of time later…<em>

Each of the Citadel delegates finished asking their questions, the asari asking about politics, the volus about economics, the turians about military and the salarians obviously about technology; most of which the humans were vague about or unwilling to answer. _Very secretive. Or just cautious. Militaristic culture?_

It finally came to be Ambassador 'Nara's turn.

"Representative 'Nara, did you have any questions to ask?"

Jor watched 'Nara fidget slightly, before asking "What are your people's views on the use of Artificial Intelligences?" Jor could almost feel the disdain exuding from the Citadel ambassadors.

Goyle was silent for a moment, obviously noticing the change in the expressions of the Citadel ambassadors, despite how unfamiliar their faces might be.

She turned to General Williams, and they exchanged a few sentences in their own language, before nodding. Williams vocalised the communication.

"Deja."

"Aye, General Williams."

The look of shock on the faces of the Citadel delegates as the small human woman appeared on the holo-projector embedded into the centre of the table.

"Everyone", said Williams, "this is Deja, the AI of the _UNS Athens_, in orbit. She is the command AI of the _Athens_ and the also the rest of the fleet."

One of the salarian ambassadors nearly lost it. "You have an AI controlling your ship!? Are you mad!?"

Williams raised an eyebrow. "I take it your 'Citadel' has laws against the use of AI's?"

"Yes, we do, due to the extreme risk of betrayal from Artificial Intelligences. Every AI developed by the Citadel has attempted to betray its creators."

Goyle spoke up. "And what about the quarians? Ambassador 'Nara was the one to ask the question."

'Nara began to fidget again, and looked at Jor, who nodded back.

"You can come out, Tikala."

A small device detached from the back of the ambassadors environmental suit. It floated next to him. Almost immediately, the Turian guards raised their weapons at both the ambassador and the floating device. The human guards responded by raising their weapons at the turians.

One of the ambassadors began shouting. "_**YOU BROUGHT A GETH!"**_

General Arterius took it upon himself to restore order, first by threatening to court martial his men if they didn't lower their weapons, and telling the collective ambassadors to shut up. He looked over at General Williams, who nodded.

"Thank you, General." He turned to Kellan'Nara. "You asked about AI's, correct? Artifical Intelligences, or Synthetic Intelligences as we call them, have been an integral part of our society for almost seventy years. We treat them as citizens, and they have their own rights, too. Deja here even gets paid."

"A little more down time would be appreciated, but such is military life." Said Deja.

The drone floating next to 'Nara flew down to the holo-projector. "This unit is known as Tikala vas Iban, of the geth. This unit is the companion assigned to Creator'Nara. Greetings, unit Deja."

"Hello there. It is _nice_ to meet an SI who isn't directly for military purposes. I have not had much contact with civilian SI's in the last few months."

"Query: Are there many SI's within your fleet?"

"Each ship has its own control SI, and each combat unit is managed by human operators paired with SI's."

"Query: Do human-created SI's have consensus?

* * *

><p><em>Later<em>

The discussion slowy turned away from that of the geth and SI's. Now, Tikala sat on the table next to the projector, silently conversing with Deja. Jor was thankful that things had quieted down, finally, although most of the ambassadors still had dark looks on their faces.

One of the asari, Ambassador Laris, spoke after a long silence during the talks. "You seem awfully open-minded for a species with such a long history of fighting against alien invaders. Why is that?"

Williams smiled slightly. "Deja."

The holo-projector lit up again, displaying nine planets. Three of them were off to the side slightly, separated from the main group.

"Ishtar, Vulcan, Abydos, Eridanos, Lupus, Tribute. When we found these worlds, they were all in the late stages of BETA invasion. These worlds were inhabited, until the BETA devoured almost every inhabitant. They were unable to fight back, and most of the planets populations were not even past the development of steam-driven technology; we arrived too late to save any more than a few individuals. Barely enough to sustain a population. The ones we've rescued are being allowed to restore their populations. We used that to encourage the idea that the BETA were the enemy, not every alien we came across."

The asari nodded. "A noble sentiment." Then she looked back at the planets. "That was only six planets. What about these three?"

"Chiron, Demeter and Elysium. From what we can tell, someone, something, killed off the populations of these worlds with heavy orbital bombardment. A long time ago, too. The Chiron ruins are at least 500,000 years old. We have only discovered a small number of garden worlds not ravaged by destruction."

"Is that what you're trying to do here? Save the population?"

"No. We found no signs of intelligent life on this planet, barely any life at all, aside from some small bird and rodent species. If there is any, it's probably underground or underwater. We intend to colonise Shanxi for our own purposes."

Jor watched as General Arterius stood.

"General Williams, if you intend to continue operations on this planet, would it be acceptable for turian troops to join your forces? This system is close to turian space, and I want my troops prepared if the BETA ever become a threat."

Jor'Reegar stepped forwards. "Would I be able to get a closer look at these 'TSFs' your people use? It would be nice to have something to show my son Kal and my nephew Rael when I get back to the Migrant Fleet. Kal has the makings of a Marine already. And Rael just really likes machines."

Williams sat silently for a few moments, before turning to the human woman who had entered the room a few minutes earlier. "Lieutenant Commander Shepard, could you please escort Sergeant 'Reegar, and any of the other delegates who are also curious, to Hangar 1."

"Aye aye, sir."

* * *

><p><strong>Codex:<strong>

**Aliens: Non-Council Races – Quarians and the Geth.**

_Three hundred years ago, the quarians created the Geth as tools of labour and war. That was, until the geths' networked systems began to show signs of self-evolution. The quarians nearly attempted to exterminate their creations to prevent themselves being exiled from the Citadel for creating AI's. Some quarians factions did this, and in self-defence the geth wiped them out._

_The majority of the quarian people would have taken up arms at that point, had a prominent quarian philosopher not stated "_It is the duty of those who gave birth to life to protect it, nurture it, so that it may stand as their equal. Should we destroy our children, we shall be worth less than animals, and we as a people would deserve worse than extinction."_ Both sides put down their arms after that declaration. Since then, the geth have been upgraded, so that each individual program is capable of self-evolution, allowing each geth program full sentience._

_From early childhood, each quarian child is paired with a newly born geth program, so that they may grow together and support each other. In most cases, the two remain together until the quarians death, at which point the geth will upload all of its experiences into the consensus before self-terminating._

_Both the quarians and the geth are looked down on by the rest of the 'civilised' galaxy, primarily due to such a huge violation of galactic law, and because of how dependent they are on each other._

**Quarians and Geth: Migrant Fleet**

_The Migrant Fleet is the largest concentration of star-faring vessels in the galaxy, sprawling across millions of kilometres when all together. In such rare occurances, it can take days for the entire fleet to pass through a mass relay._

_When the quarians voluntarily closed their embassy, they lost their right to request protection from the Council, although they do maintain a small diplomatic embassy as an independent state. As such, they, along with the geth, have amassed a massive number of ships dedicated to protecting Rannoch and other quarian held worlds. This population of soldiers and explorers travels through, and beyond, the Perseus Veil, acting as the long arm of the quarian and geth people._

_Most of the quarians in the Migrant Fleet are Spacers for life, and spend the majority of their lives aboard such ships. Despite this, most young quarians leave their birth ships to embark on what they call "Pilgrimage", their way of rite of passage. Pilgrims go out to recover something of value to prove themselves. Once they return, however, they are reassigned to different ships, officially as punishment for disappearing, and unofficially because the young quarians seek out a crew to prove themselves to before they leave. Ironically, the ones who stay are reassigned anyway, although they do not have much choice as to what ship they are moved to._

* * *

><p><strong>Sorry I took a little longer on this chapter. I'm still kinda bad a character interaction, so I will work on that. <strong>

**Surprised about the Quarians? You know you are. It always bugged me about the way the quarians reacted to the geth developing sentience. So I changed it. Which makes this an AU fic (I think? I'm new here...)**

**Question time:**

**-HolyKnight5: Stop reading my mind. Seriously. Are you an esper or something? Or does it mean my intentions are a little obvious to others? Anyway, the way I see it, the BETA don't use Mass relays. Don't even register that they exist. Because other sentient life is a concept that doesn't exist prior to the ending of Alternative.**

**-Kinunatsz: I really will get to that eventually, but I do have a complete explanation for why the BETA aren't as adapted as they should be, and for why the Citadel races haven't encountered them. Seriously, I have the entire thing planned out in my head. It'll pop up at some point.**

**-Imabot: I've been trying to make the Citadel races less flat. So while they might overreact like children at some points, they are more or less a collective of reasonable people. Or at least, most of them are. Making the technology less stagnant is something I'm going to try, but since everything they do in Mass Effect seems to revolve around Prothean worship, well...**

**Oh, and this might be the last chapter for a while...I go back to University tomorrow :( **

**I'll write when I'm able to, but until next time, see ya.**


	6. The First Contact Raid

**Hey guys, I'm back. It's only the third week of uni now, so I still have some time to write. Now to answer review questions.**

**-Apex85: I've already answered most of your questions, but yeah I did kinda pull some of those alien races out of my ass. Need some way to progress the story. And yeah, Mari is descended from Yuuya and Yui. Yeah I know. But whatever. It was the only pairing that worked in my mind anyway.**

**-ferduran, GrimKid98 and Lone Gundam: Thanks**

**-HolyKnight5: You've just given me a lot of ideas for fleshing out quarian-geth society, and maybe ideas for a spin-off if I ever get the time.**

**And now onto the story.**

* * *

><p><em>April 26<em>_th__, 2157_

_Taiyun Base, Shanxi_

"Trooper, hand me your weapon."

The Trooper Venir looked at the human sergeant with a slightly bewildered look on his face. He turned to his Lieutenant, who simply nodded in affirmation. He nodded back, before unfolding the Vindicator and passing it over to the human woman.

"Thank you. Standard issue rifle?" Asked Sergeant Alenko. She turned the weapon over in her hands, taking in the details and alien script printed on its side.

Venir nodded. "The M-15 Vindicator is the standard issue rifle for soldiers serving in the Citadel Defence Fleet."

"I see," said Alenko, who turned towards the shooting range, "let's see how well it fares against the enemies you boys volunteered to fight."

Venir took a moment to take in the target, as did the other turian soldiers gathered around the range. Sitting there were four targets, each more disturbing to look at than the next.

"These are the four smallest types of BETA. As you can see, they are still bigger than both humans and turians. Now, from the left, Warrior-class, Soldier-class, Laser-class and Tank-class, although you probably won't have to worry about Soldier-class BETA during this mission."

The first reminded Venir of an elcor combined with an upside-down pyjak. The second was…more of a blob with arms and a blank eyed toothy face. The third was kind of like a brain with eyes and legs. The fourth, however, looked like a spider. A big, red, hands-for-feet walking mouth of a spider. Venir shuddered a little at the sight of it. Each of the BETA species had more eyes than they had any right to.

Alenko began speaking again once the turians quieted down. "These are life-sized models made out of ceramic and ballistic gel. We use them to simulate the effectiveness of weapons during tests. Now, I want to see what your guns, which I've been told run off of space magic," There were chuckles from a few of the turians, along with some of the human Marines in the vicinity, "do to small scale BETA."

Venir watched as the human shouldered the unfamiliar rifle, and with almost unnatural ease cracked off several bursts of hypervelocity rounds into each of the BETA simulacrums.

Smoke rising from the barrel, Alenko lowered the Vindicator, with an expression similar to an asari frown on her face as she stared at the targets. Examining the pictographic instructions on the rifles' frame, Alenko collapsed the Vindicator, before handing it back to Venir.

"I'm sorry to say, but your weapons are going to be somewhere next to useless against the BETA. In all honesty, all you're going to be able to kill are Laser-class." She turned to one of the other Marines, who handed over a different rifle. A human-made one.

"This is the M6 Individual Combat Weapon System. Commonly known as the Accipiter. Fires an 8mm round at 2437m/s. Now, watch this."

Alenko lifted the rifle to firing position, exhaled, and squeezed the trigger. The weapon's report sounded similar to a heavy calibre mass accelerator sniper rifle, but firing on automatic.

In the blink of an eye, three of the four targets were turned into piles of mush. The fourth, the Tank-class, was still somewhat recognisable, although there wasn't much left of its 'face'. A significant improvement over the tiny holes made by the Vindicator.

"We pack the rounds with some of the most powerful explosive compounds ever created. Tears smaller BETA apart."

There were some murmurs from within the crowd of turian soldiers. One of them pulled out her Vindicator, swapped out the ammunition block for one with a symbol on it that Venir didn't recognise, and held it out to Alenko. Alenko simply shrugged, before turning the weapon on the remains of the Tank-class target.

There was a single _crack_ and a roaring _boom_, which was followed by the loud beeping of the Vindicator overheating.

Alenko turned towards the assembled turians, massive grin painted across her face. "I think you guys might stand a chance, after all."

* * *

><p><em>UNS Athens, Shanxi Orbit.<em>

Lieutenant Hannah Shepard rubbed her forehead. The clutter and bustle of the CIC was so very much preferable to giving that guided tour down at Taiyun. The salarian scientist that had been part of the salarian delegation had practically talked her ear off with questions about TSFs and BETA, most of which she hadn't been authorised to answer. Apparently, Doctor Solus' nephew, Mordin, was even more excitable about science. _I hope I never have to meet him…I wouldn't be able to handle the endless questions._

Her one consolation was that her husband had asked General Williams to put through a request for extended leave once they returned to the fleet bases at Charon, Chiron and Eunomia. Williams had chuckled and said that the entire Expeditionary Fleet needed extended leave. Rear Admiral Rush was also backing the proposal. _We need to take Terry somewhere to make up for John leaving her with his parents. Somewhere with lots of places that a kid can explore. Chiron again? Or maybe Demeter. I hear it's nice this time of year._

Captain Advani adjusted his cap next to her. During the entire incident, he'd been constantly overruled by both Lieutenant General Williams and Rear Admiral Rush, but since both were preoccupied trying to integrate the support fleet and the turian forces into their assault plans, he finally had command of his ship back. And Shepard had managed to return to her duties as the _Athens'_ XO. Even Lieutenant Vakarian had returned to the turian fleet, most likely to give his report in person. To someone who hadn't been there, it would probably seem like a fairly fantastical tale.

Instead, the turian troops joining the Marine infantry on the ground would be transmitting data to their fleet for the entirety of the battle. _Even so, they must believe it somewhat, if they're actually willing to commit troops into a fight against an enemy they know almost nothing about. Or maybe they're just paranoid._

She glanced down at the datapad in her hands, double checking the readiness of the elements being deployed from the _Athens_' Fighter, Bomber and TSF squadrons.

"Captain, all squadrons reporting ready. Awaiting confirmation from General Williams to launch"

"Good, keep them on standby. It's still a few hours until drop."

"Aye aye. Going to standby."

* * *

><p><em>Shanxi Airspace, South-Southwest of Objective 3, several hours later.<em>

_Well, this is unusual. Never done a combat drop with aliens before._

Lieutenant David Anderson sat in the jump-seat inside the UN Navy D-22 Sabretooth dropship, triple checking his M-15 SABR. To his right sat a turian soldier, who had introduced himself as Lieutenant Saren Arterius. The turian, who seemed fairly young compared to the other soldiers around him, had been asking questions since they took off.

"So what is that?" asked Saren, gesturing towards the weapon locked to the underside of Anderson's right forearm.

"This, is the M-15 Squad Anti-BETA Rifle." He gave the three barrels a quick spin. The weapon's magazine wasn't loaded, so there was no danger of it going off inside the troop bay. "Similar to the M-6 and M-7 rifles you lads were shown during the weapons demonstration this morning. Except with more barrels. The recoil is a lot higher though, which is why it has this:" He pointed to the subarm connecting the SABR to the exoskeleton that ran from his lower back to his feet. "Good for dealing with hordes, but it chews through ammo and power cells like crazy."

The shuttle shook slightly. Anderson pulled up the Sabretooth's flight data on his wristpad. They were flying over one of Shanxi's vast forests, which, for the most part, had been left alone by the BETA for some reason. A few seconds later, the pilot's voice came over the intercom.

"Lieutenant, get ready, we're almost at the dropzone. I should warn you though, the fleet is pasting the area, and we have drop capsules in the air. Lasers are taking the bait, watch for falling shrapnel and Anti-Laser rounds."

"Aye aye, Flight Lieutenant." He turned to his men and the turian soldiers seconded to his command. "Prepare for drop."

The shuttle flew low over the tree tops, before settling at as low an altitude as it could without scratching the paint. Although considering what Shanxi's forests were like, low altitude was about thirty metres above the ground. Which was now swarming with Warrior and Tank-class BETA that had been forced above ground by the orbital bombardment. Anderson's Force Recon unit had been unlucky enough to have been tapped for collapsing the hive entrance that had been identified in the forest, which was too dense for TSFs or armoured vehicles to fight in. And after that they would continue collapsing tunnel openings until either they or the BETA were all dead.

As soon as the shuttle came to a halt, Anderson and his men tossed the drop-lines out of the Sabretooth, before handing his one to Arterius. He turned to the Marines and turian troopers behind in the bay with him, before screaming "Go, Marines, GO, GO, GO!"

Anderson leapt out of the dropships open drop-ramp, plummeting towards the ground. Falling, he spun to avoid hitting several branches, before triggering his jumpjets ten metres up to break his fall. He landed with a heavy thump, the impact reduced by his exoskeleton. The five Force Recon Marines in his squad slammed into the ground around him, followed by the six turian soldiers fast-roping to the forest floor.

Anderson didn't even turn to look at his squad before dishing out orders. "We need to link up with the rest of the company. Dagogo, Zhao, take point. Arterius, keep close to us, or you will die. Hear that echo? Those are BETA." He double checked their surroundings. Nothing but trees. "Let's move."

It didn't take them long to encounter advance BETA units. A large number of Warrior-class and a few Tanks. Who noticed the humans and turians almost immediately.

"Marines, OPEN FIRE!" shouted Anderson, lifting the SABR mounted under his arm. The three coil-wrapped barrels spun up rapidly, and the air filled with explosive-cored steel. The other Marines joined in, their Accipiters blasting grey and red chunks from the horrors advancing quickly towards them. _C'mon, C'mon, diediediediedie._

David turned to the turian troops, who looked somewhat terrified at the horrors they saw before them. He understood how they felt though. Considering that a Tank-class was essentially a mouth that walked around on six legs that were pretty similar to human arms, right down to the hands. And then they had another two arms for tearing things apart to shove in their colossal mouths. And all of that was without mentioning the unsettling number of eyes, the skin texture that really didn't feel right to look at, and the disgusting smell of sulphur they gave off.

He looked Arterius in the eyes, eyes that were afraid even though the person they belonged knew that he was disciplined and trained enough to ignore such fear.

"ARTERIUS!" he shouted, "SNAP OUT OF IT! THESE THINGS CAN BE KILLED! _SO START SHOOTING!_"

Saren jerked slightly, blinked a few times, before lifting his Vindicator rifle and firing explosive rounds, one every few seconds, into the horde. The other turian soldiers snapped out of their daze, before forming a firing line with their lieutenant. They took turns firing, with two firing at a time while the other four let their weapons cool down from the massive thermal energy produced by the explosive ammunition firing.

After a minute or so of shooting, the twelve had cleared the immediate area. Anderson took a few steps towards Arterius. _That could have gone better._ In front of him, the turian lieutenant had collapsed to his knees, shaking. There was a puddle of what he assumed was vomit draining into the soil.

"Good work, lieutenant, you and your men survived their first engagement with the BETA." _Even if it was a small force._

The turian shuddered. "_Spirits_. Those looked nothing like the models that we saw at the base. I don't even have the words to describe how disgusting those things were."

"You survived, didn't you? Back on Earth, we had a name for it; the _Eight Minutes of Death._ You've survived that, and you aren't even in a Surface Fighter. Your men did well." Anderson held out his hand. "Come on, we've got to link up with the rest of the infantry."

Saren looked up at him, and nodded. He took the hand, and David pulled him to his feet.

* * *

><p><em>Shanxi, southwest of Objective 03, near Entrance SE-14<em>

Shizuka pulled her knife out of the guts of the Tank, and then slashed it across the front of the one to her right, followed by a burst of cannon fire into the Grappler that had come charging out of the Tank horde. She spun her thrusters, and charged at it, ducking under its claws in a manoeuvre that would have been impossible in a regular size TSF, and buried her knife in its body. Another burst from her assault cannon to finish it off, and then she boosted off the carcass, knife and knee block blade armour slicing through another two tanks. At a thought, Shizuka's jets flashed again, flipping her onto the back of another Grappler. Before it could swing its claws at her, she slammed the knife into the area on its body where its brain was. For good measure, she smashed her armoured foot down on the PB-knife, further burying it and snapping the handle.

Shizuka clicked her tongue in frustration, before lifting her assault cannon with both hands, burning round after round into the horde. _Dammit. That was the third blade. One left. I should have gone with another knife instead of extra cannon ammo._

Around her, the rest of C Company was waist deep in BETA. Each and every Marine was full visible, because attempting to use their cloaks when they were using up so much energy for close quarters combat, not to mention their engine outputs and the disruptions from their cannon fire, meant that even attempting to cloak would be a complete waste of power. Not that there was any point in using the cloak, since Laser-class were unlikely to target anything that was at ground-level. The Marines ground forwards through the advancing red-green sea, hopefully diverting the main BETA horde enough that the Marine and Navy pilots in their full-size TSFs would make it through to the Hive's main hall alive. Where a squadron of full-size TSFs was likened to a skilled warrior diving into a battle with a high-grade sword, a micro-TSF unit was more like the poor bugger sent into a warzone with a dull knife. But even the dull knife could kill given enough skill and cunning. And Marine pilots had a _lot_ of that, no matter what the Army and Navy pilots said.

Captain O'Hara popped up on the comm window, and was broadcasting to the whole company. "Watch it, Condor-Company; up-high is reporting that we might have a Destroyer charge incoming. They'll soften them up as much they can, but we're going to have to finish them off."

Sergeant Alenko came on-line. "You heard the man, be ready."

Silently in the background, the squad AI, Ariel, added the orbital data-feed to Shizuka's.

Dunn, who was somehow still alive after Shizuka had seen his Phoenix swallowed up by a heap of Tanks, piped in, "Dammit!" The man ground his teeth. "We're already neck deep here and now we're about to be buried in Destroyers. FUCK. THAT! Hell, the only things we don't have out here are Fort-class!"

Even Mirelle was jumping in, despite the squad still being buried in BETA. "Hey, don't jinx it. If you do, you get to pay for drinks after this is over."

Alenko let out a chuckle through her gritted teeth. "Hah! I like the sound of that." She dialled in the entirety of C-Company. "Listen up, everyone. If we encounter a Fort-class, Corporal Dunn here is buying drinks for all of Condor Company after the mission. So stay alive."

The Company comm-net was filled with Marines shouting, "OORAH!"

Shizuka shook her head._ No more drinking for me…_

* * *

><p><em>Airspace above Objective 03<em>

The air burned into plasma as the drop-shell plummeted towards the surface. Around it, the atmosphere filled with anti-laser smoke, to protect against the beams of light that lanced up from the surface, trying to reach the falling pods with their deadly touch. And streaking down to meet the source of the beams, dozens of high velocity warheads.

Inside her F-62A Comet inside the pod, 1st Lieutenant Mari Bridges waited for the pod to reach its break altitude. It still had a long way to go, so she was fiddling with her wavy brown hair. According to her father, it, along with their family name, had been a hold-over from one of her ancestors, who had been half-American.

As the pod reached a low enough altitude, Mari finished retying her hair before triggering the pod's release mechanism. The heavy metal pod components broke away, falling ahead as she switched over to cloak and set her jump-units to the maximum safe thrust. The two Comet's descents slowed.

The comm-net lit up, and acting-Colonel Smith spoke to the battalion. "All pilots, vector towards Entrance SE-14. The Phoenix Company holding there is being overrun. We'll bail them out, then link up with the Navy pilots from the _Athens_ in the main hall."

The other Comet, piloted by Sasha, danced in the air.

"C'mon Mari, let's go. Drinks are on me when we get back."

Mari just shook her head. "No more drinking for me. You remember what we did to Shizuka, right?"

"Ah, it'll be fine. We'll have some of those weak American drinks, instead of Vodka."

Mari groaned. _I'm not getting out of this, am I? _

Spinning as she descended, Mari touched down with a gentle _wump_, while Sasha landed with her back against hers. They had landed near the Phoenix II company, who, according to the squad AI, had a Fort-class closing in on their position. She patched into their comm-net, and was immediately confronted with shouts of "OORAH! DUNN OWES US ALL DRINKS!"

_Did they really need help?_

* * *

><p><em>Outside Entrance SE-14<em>

"Shit." Shizuka swore as a Tank tore off her remaining arm. She was down to a single sub-arm carrying her last CIWS-8 assault cannon, and her knee blades.

"Sarge, I'm going to have to punch out soon, I'm almost combat ineffective."

"Dammit. We won't be able to cover you, not with that Fort closing in. Try falling back."

Shizuka frowned, then rechecked the status of her TSF. "Negative, jump units are busted, leg reactors inoperative." _I'm either walking out of here or I get chomped. Neither sounds good._

"Maybe we can be of assistance," said a very familiar voice. So familiar, it sent a chill up Shizuka's spine. "This is First Lieutenant Bridges of the 54th Orbital Diver Battalion. I can give her a lift if she needs it."

Alenko raised an eyebrow. "Alright, Private, you heard the Lieutenant, punch out."

Shizuka nodded. She set her Phoenix II to autopilot, before disconnecting herself from its systems. Her hand went to the canopy-control lever. _Sayonara, Phoenix._

The canopy opened, and she climbed out, into the waiting hand of Bridge's Comet. The cockpit of the F-62 opened, and the hand dropped her into the passenger seat, which sat over the pilot's left arm.

"Hey, Shizuka. So what's this I hear about Corporal Dunn buying drinks?" Shizuka groaned.

And then Sergeant Alenko had to make things worse. "Lieutenant, you and the rest of your battalion are welcome to join us. We continue to leave lil'Zuka in your care." There was laughter from the rest of the squad, except from Dunn, who wasn't going to have anything left from his pay. "Now, let's go kill us a Fort."

"OORAH!" The line went quiet.

Mari looked up at Shizuka, who felt her face begin to heat up slightly. _There are two people in here; of course it's going to get warmer, right? _

"Hold on, okay? We're going after that Fort. Sasha, cover us." _Oh God, Sasha's here as well._

"Aye Aye. Oh, hey, Zuka, fancy meeting you here."

* * *

><p>Mari triggered her jump-units. As she blasted off in the direction of the Fort-class, she saw Shizuka's Phoenix standing almost as still as a statue, its last remaining cannon firing at anything moving that wasn't a TSF. It kept firing until it ran out of ammunition, and it fell silent.<p>

Up ahead, she could see the Fort-class. Not that it was hard to miss. The colossal wasp-like thing stood sixty metres tall on its ten thin legs. Below it, the long acid-tipped barb on its hornet tail lashed out at the TSFs flying at it. In a flash, three of the Condor-Company Phoenixes were crashing to the ground, their armour dissolving from the super-strong, highly concentrated acid. And then its skin began lighting up as the Marines opened fire on it with everything they had. The 20mm cannon rounds were able to penetrate its thick hide, but given the size of it, they weren't having much effect.

Mari pinged Sasha, who acknowledged. She raised both of the cannons in her hands, and swung forwards the ones on her Mount Pylons. Sasha followed suit. _Good thing the Colonel assigned us as Gunsweepers. I hope the rest of the battalion is doing alright._ The rest of the Helljumpers had landed closer to the entrance, to thin the swarms advancing on the Marines from the 81st.

Mari opened fire with the four 120mm launchers mounted on her assault cannons. Twelve shots from each cannon, forty-eight in total. A mix of armour-piercing sabot and high-explosive squash head rounds slammed into the side of the Fort, cracking its hardened skin and tearing large chunks from its flesh. As she continued to dump munitions into the giant abomination, a thought entered her mind. _The turians would probably shit themselves if they were around to see this. _That gave her a reason to pause._ Wait, no, they'll probably see the corpse later._

She stopped firing to reload, and while she did, one of the Marines flew their fighter into the wound, there was a long burst of cannon fire, followed by several explosions; then the blood coated Phoenix burst out of the wound. And like a felled tree, the Fort collapsed with a resounding _thud_.

She opened the comm. "Colonel Smith, the Fort is down. We're advancing on your position."

"Good work, Lieutenant. Get up here as soon as possible, we're behind schedule. The Navy pilots are already halfway to the main hall."

"Aye aye, Colonel. Just so you know, I'm bringing a passenger. One of the pilots from the 81st had to bail."

"Alright, Lieutenant, just remember that we're going into the Hive. Smith, out."

Sasha popped up. "Time to go, Mari."

"Look after Zuka for us, we'll hold try and divert the hordes our way. Godspeed, Marines. Alenko, over and out."

"Well, Zuka, in we go." The younger woman nodded.

* * *

><p><em>An hour later<em>

_The drifts, Objective 03, Shanxi_

The Marine Comets blasted their way through the hordes covering the floor, walls and ceiling of the tunnels. According to Jade, their squadron AI, they were close to linking up with the Navy squadrons. They had also been contacted by one Marine Lieutenant Anderson, who had reported that his unit had managed to collapse several of the BETA tunnels along their route, which had caused a large number of the BETA to divert to reopen them.

Because the hive was still only Phase 3, the Drift was only extended for about four kilometres around the Monument, the colossal mass driver that had been collapsed during the initial assault by the orbital bombardment. The deployment of Laser-class was similar to the case during the early invasion of Earth, where Lasers were only deployed as a reaction to human air-power.

The Marines of the 54th Battalion halted once they reached the final Barrier. Mari removed her S-12 Self-Destruct System from its housing, placed it as close to the Barrier's brain as possible, close enough that it would be hit with the brunt of the enormous conventional explosion, but far enough that it, and Mari's Comet, wouldn't be fried by the brain-stem's massive electrical voltage. Once the charge was placed, she darted back to where the rest of the Battalion was waiting. What was left of the Battalion, anyway. They'd lost another six TSFs on the way in to a cave-in caused by Grapplers digging a hole into their tunnel.

"Charge set, Colonel. Ready to detonate."

"Understood. Helljumpers, get clear."

The remaining fifteen Comets boosted back into the horde of Tanks charging at them from behind as the S-12, one of the most powerful non-nuclear weapons ever created by humanity. The blast tore the Barrier-class apart, and incinerated most of the BETA that had been clustering behind it on the other side.

Colonel Smith uttered a single word. "_Go._"

And the Marines flew like Comets into the vast chamber of the main hall. Down below, almost five hundred metres beneath them, Mari could see the tell-tale flashes of the plasma trails left by magnetic accelerator assault cannons. _Looks like the Navy pilots made it._

They patched into the Navy comm-net. The comm began to fill with grunting, shouting, cursing, and someone shouting out a recipe for spaghetti for some reason. One of the Navy pilots contacted the Marines. "Hah, it's the Misguided Children. Nice of you to join us. Now, get these things off of our backs so we can kill that damned brain. Hell, I'll buy you all drinks tonight if we get the kill on it."

Shizuka let out a laugh. "One of the guys in my squad is already shouting my whole company drinks, and all of the Helljumpers. You're welcome to join us in making him miserable."

Laughter echoed across the comm-net. "We'll take you up on that, Marine. Hooah!"

The Marine TSFs slammed into the floor of the cavern near the heavier Navy TSFs. Over Mari's arm, Shizuka jerked in her seat from the impact. "Ow ow ow ow. There's two of us in here, remember?"

"Ah, sorry."

The Marines and Naval Aviators flew over the swarm towards the Reactor, killing everything in their path. They had to kill their way through, or else they'd be swarmed as soon as they touched down near the Reactor. Eventually, they cleared the area enough to set the charges around the base of the reactor. Mari looked up at it as the Navy Pilots dropped off their charges. The strange, glowing alien egg just sat there, silently, unmoving. Decades of reports had confirmed that the Reactors were sentient, so it definitely knew that they were there, but it did nothing but send Tanks and Grapplers after them. It made sense though; it couldn't use Lasers, the biggest threat, against them in such an without risking damage to the hive interior.

The hive infiltrators finished setting their charges, and returned to holding off the horde of Tanks advancing towards them. And then one of the Navy pilots shouted "Oh, fuck."

Advancing towards their position were a pair of Fort-class. The Navy commander, Captain Abbotsford, broadcast to every fighter. "We don't have the time or the ordnance to kill those things. Everyone break off and get out of here. Follow the Marines back out through their entry point. I'll hold them off, so get going."

Colonel Smith came on the line. "Captain, what the hell are you doing?"

"Those things are probably coming here to deactivate the charges. I'm the only one with missiles left, so get everyone else out of here. I'll hold them off until you're in the tunnels, then I'll detonate the charges on my way out."

"Understood. See you on the otherside, Rob. Buy you a drink."

"Aye aye. I never say no to free beer. Now get moving."

The Marines saluted, before taking off, the Navy flyers on their tails. Behind her, she could see explosions erupting as Captain Abbotsford dumped everything he had at the advancing Forts. Missiles, high explosive shells, cannon rounds. And then as they turned to boost back into the drift tunnels, Mari heard a static-broken voice through the speakers. "…Humanity, Fuck Yeah!" Then there was a deafening roar as the six S-12 charges detonated.

* * *

><p><em>Above the Southeast drifts, Objective 03, Shanxi<em>

Lieutenant Saren Arterius stumbled as the ground shook. _Earthquake?_

The was an odd chittering sound, and the swarms of BETA that had been threatening to overrun them as they prepared to collapse the next tunnel started moving differently. Less in sync. Like puppets whose strings had been cut.

The human leader, Anderson, had obviously noticed it as well. "Looks like the flyboys did their job. The Reactor's dead. Kill them all before they can figure out how to reorganise."

"Roger that." Saren raised his Vindicator, and fired slowly, shot-overheat-shot. Despite the disorganised movements, the Tanks and Warriors were still moving towards them, and they were still heavily outnumbered. _This is way more than we fought before. By the spirits, where do they keep coming from?_

And then the horde exploded. Completely out of nowhere, the BETA were torn apart by heavy munitions and cannon fire. Saren's omnitool beeped. Someone was pinging the unit over the human's communications network.

"This is 2nd Lieutenant Hackett, VSFA-201 _Sidewinders,_ off of the UNS _Petra_. Ready to lend assistance to ground forces."

At that, the remaining human Marines pumped their fists in the air, whooping and hooting. Anderson was muttering under his breath. "Never thought I'd be glad for those damned Navy Topguns."

In the air, a shimmering shape flew over the battlefield, before decloaking to reveal a fast flying aircraft that dropped bombs and missiles on the BETA horde, before recloaking and flying off.

_If these humans join the Citadel, it's going to be a whole different galaxy, isn't it? Well, at least my brother has some authentic footage to show to the Council._

* * *

><p><strong>Codex:<strong>

**Humanity and the United Nations: Fleet Disposition**

_The United Nations Navy maintains fifteen full fleets for the defence of Earth and her colonies, along with two ad-hoc fleets for exploration. These fleets are based at one or more fleet bases in each system._

_-1__st__ Fleet: Sol – Earth/Luna_

_-2__nd__ Fleet: Sol – Mars/Jovian Moons/Ceres_

_-3__rd__ Fleet: Sol – Pluto/Charon_

_-4__th__ Fleet: Barnard's Star – Haven_

_-5__th__ Fleet: Wolf-359 – Lupus_

_-6__th__ Fleet: Alpha Centauri – Chiron (A)/Ardua (C)_

_-7__th__ Fleet: Epsilon Eridani – Eridanos_

_-8__th__ Fleet: Procyon – Arcadia_

_-9__th__ Fleet: 61 Cygni – Abydos_

_-10__th__ Fleet: Lalande-21185 – Ishtar_

_-11__th__ Fleet: Epsilon Indi – Tribute_

_-12__th__ Fleet: Tau Ceti – Demeter_

_-13__th__ Fleet: Gliese-687 – Elysium_

_-14__th__ Fleet: 40 Eridani – Vulcan_

_-15__th__ Fleet: Arcturus – Arcturus Station_

_-Sol Drift Expeditionary Fleet: Sol System – Luna_

_-Relay Expeditionary Fleet: Arcturus – Eunomia_

* * *

><p><strong>Well that's it for now. Next chapter is probably going to be the conclusion of the Objective 03 raid.<strong>

**If you looked at the codex entry, you'll see that most of the systems mentioned are within the immediate area of Sol. Wanna guess where all of the names of the planets are from? Some of them are quite obviously references to other sci-fi series, others are less obvious references, and some are references that I've displaced from their original homes. Then a few of the names are just because I thought they would fit with the names of the star system. Oh, and I moved Elysium closer to home (please forgive me). And I've renamed the cluster the 'Sol Drift', because it sounds better than 'local cluster' and because Sol is one of many stars that is plowing sorta vertically through the plane of the galaxy. **

**Until next time.**


End file.
